More women than ever are heading into Congress in 2023; what's the landscape like in Ohio?

A record number of women, 144, will be sworn into the U-S Congress in January. Those women also cut a wide swath in terms of diversity regarding race, ethnicity and political views.

What's the situation in Ohio? Well, among the state's 16 U.S. House of Representative seats -- soon to be 15, only three are currently held by women. That's lower than the national proportion. We have also never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate. But our state legislature is 31% female, which ranks us 22nd among the 50 states.

Nan Whaley recently made history here by being the first woman from a major party to win a gubernatorial primary in Ohio -- although she lost the general election to incumbent Republican governor Mike DeWine.

In Summit County, many top elected offices are now held by female-identifying candidates, including the county executive, prosecutor, clerk of courts, fiscal officer and the county's first-ever female sheriff.

Meanwhile, at the voting level, many political pundits predicted that this summer's decision overturning Roe versus Wade would activate women at a record level. And that appears to be the case.

A Baldwin Wallace University poll showed that the Roe decision was indeed the biggest motivator for women and Democratic voters in Ohio as they headed to the polls. That contrasted with inflation being the top issue for male and Republican voters.

Today on the show, we'll look at the landscape for women in politics as we head into 2023, and discuss what kinds of information we can glean from the election earlier this month.

Later in the hour, a conversation with two high school seniors who and their musical comedy that's raising money for charity.

- Barbara Palmer, Professor of Political Science; Creator & Executive Director of the BW Center for Women and Politics of Ohio

- Natalie and Sophia Casas, Seniors at Laurel School; Producers “A Formal Night Evening”