Rob Christensen’s column in the News & Observer this morning was inspirational — but not in the way you might think. Christensen’s point, in a nutshell, is that misogyny reigns in North Carolina politics, regardless of the party in control.

I was perplexed by his rhetoric near the end of the column, though, which sounded more like a press release from the N.C. Democratic Party than clear-headed political analysis. And from there my inspiration blossomed:

The Democrats at least pretended to include women in the legislative leadership. The Republicans don’t even bother.

The Republican legislative leadership is male dominated in a way we have not seen in Raleigh in recent years. Is there a chromosomal dimension to their bitter feud with a female governor, their targeting of female legislators, their war against a female-dominated teachers association and their effort to restrict the reproductive freedoms of women?

That piqued my curiosity, so I dug through the Carolina Journal newsroom vaults to trace the gender gap in the N.C. General Assembly in recent years — the Democrats during the 2009-2010 session when they still held a majority, and the Republicans in power during the current 2011-2012 session.

I focus on the House because the Senate is basically an all-man club, regardless of party. By my count, there were six women serving in the Senate at the beginning of the 2011-2012 term — three Republicans and three Democrats — out of the total 50 members. (And lest you think that Republicans drove out all the women in 2010, there also were six women in the Senate at the beginning of the 2009-2010 session.)

So what was the male-female divide in the House when Democrats held power versus now? Interestingly, the male-female split of top Democratic House leaders in 2009-2010 was nearly identical to the current ratio in the House Republican leadership. Reps. Jean Farmer-Butterfield and Deborah Ross were majority whips; the remaining three whips were men, as were the speaker, speaker pro tem, and majority leader.

During the current session of the General Assembly, Rep. Ruth Samuelson is the Republican’s majority whip, and Rep. Pat McElraft is a deputy majority whip. The remaining top leaders are men.

So, the Democrats’ woman-to-man ratio in 2009-2010 was 2:6. In 2011-2012, the Republicans’ ratio is 2:4. Percentage wise, then, the GOP’s ratio is actually better, but only because they don’t have as many whips as did the Democrats. [Insert witty joke here.]

Christensen might have a point when it comes to the allocation of top House committee assignments, where there is a disparity between the parties. In 2009-2010, Democrats had 11 female representatives either as chairs or vice chairs on the House Appropriations Committee. In 2011-2012, the Republicans have three.

In the House Finance Committee, Democrats assigned two women either as chairs or vice chairs. The Republicans put only one, but she is senior chairman (Rep. Julia Howard).

Even so, it’s hardly fair to write that Republicans “don’t even bother” to put women in leadership posts given that the GOP’s male-female ratio in top leadership assignments is nearly identical to Democrats’ ratio from the past session.