10M More women voted than men in the 2008 election.
23.6 Percent of state executive offices filled by women in 2009, down from 27.6 a decade ago.
74 Percent who said they felt comfortable with a woman president, in a 2007 survey from the White House Project, down from 79 percent in 2005. Women have voted at a higher rate than men in every presidential election since 1980.
The most powerful woman in local politics is hardly known outside government circles and political junkies.
When Mike Bloomberg is away, First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris makes sure trash is picked up and crime stays down.
Known around City Hall as the “Velvet Hammer” she’s the highest paid person in city government at $227,219. Bloomberg’s No. 2 advises him and manages his philanthropy. She even picked his burial plot, according to author Joyce Purnick’s “Michael Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics.”
“She’s the most loyal and trusted confident of the richest man in New York, who happens to be mayor,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who worked on Bloomberg’s reelection.
She took a break from City Hall to help her boss’s campaign, reportedly earning $28,000 a month.
Known for rarely giving interviews, she declined an interview for this article.
She wields power behind the scenes, but women are still noticeably absent from executive office, said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, which promotes women in leadership. “We aren’t far enough along,” she said. “But this is going to change.”