Healey brings more women into governor’s office

Gov. Maura Healy, the first woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts, is bringing more women into state government with her.

According to the state’s diversity dashboard, Healey has 52 people working in her office at the State House – 36, or 69 percent, are women, and 16, or nearly 31 percent, are men.

The numbers were different under Charlie Baker, Healey’s predecessor as governor. Baker had 49 employees in his office during the last quarter of 2022, and the split was 53 percent men and 47 percent women.

The dashboard indicates the male-female split in the entire executive branch of government currently is 54 percent female, 46 percent male.

The racial makeup of Healey’s office is also different from Baker’s. Of Baker’s 49 employees, 35, or 71 percent, were White; eight, or 16 percent, were minority; and six, or 12 percent, did not disclose their race.  The minority breakdown in Baker’s office was four who identified as Hispanic/Latinx, three as Black, and one as Asian.

The racial breakdown in Healey’s office is 52 percent White (27 employees), 27 percent minority (14 employees), and the remaining 21 percent (11 employees) did not disclose their race. The minority breakdown in Healey’s office was seven who identified as Black, six who identified as Hispanic/Latinx, and one who identified as two or more races.

In Massachusetts overall, 30 percent of the population is comprised of minorities — a benchmark calculated by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute based on recent federal Census data.