The Legislature is expected to welcome a record number of new faces next year, thanks in part to term limits and new political maps.

But the same forces contributing to turnover under the dome are expected to cause the number of women elected to state office to drop for the third consecutive cycle.

While the demographics of the Legislature ebb and flow, groups that train and support female candidates say the trend is troubling because women currently fill just 34 of the state's 120 legislative seats.

Female legislators and groups advocating for more women in office say the issue is about more than just having a body that reflects the gender makeup of the state population, especially at a time of ongoing budget cuts to programs and services that affect women and children.

"Women in the Legislature tend to focus on issues that are important to women, such as workplace equality, the impact of budget cuts falling on women and children and things of that nature," said Democratic Sen. Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa, who chairs the legislative Women's Caucus.

"We have a lot of men that are extremely sympathetic to issues that impact women, but they're not women. It's important that a women's perspective is included."

In recent years, Evans and other female legislators have led successful efforts to mandate health coverage during maternity leave, ban the sale of baby bottles that contain the chemical bisphenol A and restore a state program that provides breast cancer screenings for low-income women.

"It's not only women who care about these things, but I would say 85 percent of all the legislation carried that you would identify as women's issues have come from the women," said former Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl, now president of a political committee that supports Democratic women running for the Legislature. "Women tend to bring up these issues more."

The expected decline is due in part to term limits – nine women currently serving are not eligible to run again this year. But groups that promote women in politics say efforts to find new female candidates have fallen flat.

"For every one woman who was rumored to be running there were typically four men," Rachel Michelin, executive director of California Women Lead, said of the current field. "If you don't have more women running, period, then of course you're going to lose seats."

With the filing period still a month away, it's too early to pinpoint exactly how many seats are likely to switch gender next year. After dropping in 2008 and 2010, the number rose by two after 2011 special elections.

One analysis, by Scott Lay of AroundtheCapitol.com, projected that as many as eight seats currently held by women could be represented by men after November's elections. While races for nine open seats are expected to include female candidates, the early favorite in many of those is male.

Michelin said the low number of candidates stems from a decline in women running and serving in local elected posts, which she called "the breeding ground" for legislative office.

Women already in office say the campaign trail still presents unique challenges and disincentives for female candidates. In addition to establishing a strong candidacy and raising money, which many say is harder for female candidates, a woman's path to Sacramento can be complicated by the traditional role as family caretaker.

"There's a lot of men serving in this Legislature who have very young children, but not once have I ever heard them have to address the question of, 'Well, how can you do that? You have young children,'" said Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto. "That was a question I had to address just about everywhere I went for my campaign."

Katie Ziegler, program manager of the National Conference of State Legislatures Women's Legislative Network, said studies and anecdotal evidence show that family and domestic concerns and other barriers have made increasing the number of women in office a challenge across the country.

"That is something that I certainly see it as something that is harder to solve," she said, noting that the percentage of women serving in state legislatures dropped one percentage point, to 23.6 percent, in 2011.

Social conditioning can also play a role in why fewer women run for office, groups supporting female candidates say, making mentoring a key part of their mission.

"I think generally girls are not really encouraged in the same way that boys are to enter into a public sort of all-elbows under the net sort of fray," Kuehl said. "Campaigns are very tough."

Running for office initially seemed daunting to Cheryl Brown, a Democrat running for a Southern California Assembly seat. Brown, who works for termed-out Assemblywoman Wilmer Carter, D-Rialto, said she went into the race "kicking and screaming."

But Brown, whose top opponent is a man, said she was inspired to continue her boss's focus on constituents.

"Everyone needs to be represented in government," she said. "This is our government, and if there are no women there, how would our voice be heard?"

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Call Torey Van Oot, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5544.

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