A report by the Wisconsin Women's Council Thursday concludes no progress"" has been made concerning the amount of women elected to local governments in the past two years.
Despite women holding several national offices in the state, the number of women in local offices has remained stagnant or declined from 2005 to 2007, according to the report.
During that period, the amount of women in local governments reached its lowest level in 20 years.
Thirty-nine out of 190 cities in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, have no female city council members, according to the report.
Christine Lidbury, executive director of the WWC, said she was concerned to see these trends considering the visibility of women in national politics, mentioning Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Lidbury said the lack of women in local government could mean fewer women running for statewide or national office.
The report also said governing bodies with a greater share of female members are more likely to have women in top leadership positions.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said in an e-mail the results of the study should be viewed more as a ""snapshot"" of women in Wisconsin politics and not necessarily an indication of overall trends.
However, Baldwin said women typically face challenges when running for office.
""Women, generally, are less likely to seek elective office because of the demands campaigning and serving, if elected, place on their lives and that of their families,"" Baldwin said.
As the first female Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said, the downward trend stems from a lack of women holding higher-level positions.
""It's a tragedy, given that women represent over half of the population, that we are not occupying half the leadership positions in our democracy,"" Falk said.
Falk endorses Clinton and campaigned for her in the days leading up to the Wisconsin primary on Feb. 19. Falk and Baldwin both said Clinton winning is important to show how women can compete in politics.
