More women would be members on the state's appointed boards and commissions under legislation to be introduced to the state House today or tomorrow by Rep. Ruth Rudy, D-Centre and Mifflin.

The "gender balance" bill would require membership on the boards and commissions to have a distribution of men and women proportionate to the people they serve, Rudy said.

With issues applicable to both men and women, the gender ratio would be relative to the general population, while boards and commissions dealing with topics directly affecting women would have more women members, she said.

"Women represent 52 percent of the population in this Commonwealth and nation, and only 23 percent of the appointed positions," Rudy said, noting that with the state's population growing older, women will continue to outnumber men.

"(The bill) will make a great deal of difference, by increasing the pool of experience of women on the board and giving a different perspective to the boards," she said.

Women hold about 300 of nearly 1,300 appointed positions in the state, she said.

Rudy has named the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Commission for Women as the official monitor of the appointments, should the bill pass.

Janice McElroy, executive director of the commission, said monitoring the appointments could be difficult because of the "limited flexibility" of some positions, in which members of other organizations automatically accept a seat. The number of people who make a appointments, such as the governor or house majority leader, would also complicate the bill's enforcement, she added.

"The coordination of how do you get the governor's office, the legislators . . . to agree, 'OK, it's your turn to appoint a woman' -- that would be the trick," McElroy said. "It's in the spirit of the direction we'd like to go but it also must look at the reality of how our system works."

But, despite potential problems in enforcing the bill, the legislation would still draw attention to the need for more women in such positions, McElroy said.

"At this point in time, in concept we certainly support it," she said. "It's a good reminder, something that increases one's awareness. We have women who are qualified and able to serve on these committees . . . they should have a voice in what is going on."

Ten states are currently considering similar legislation and four others have already passed some measure to ensure appointed positions are either balanced between men and women or equal, Rudy said.

However, in Pennsylvania, more women have been appointed in recent years, overturning a long-term imbalance, McElroy said.

"There's been some effort to include women. In looking at the data, in the past few years if, for example, a board has four people, at least one or two of them are women now," she said.

As of Thursday, Rudy said she had about 40 co-sponsors on the bill, noting that the day she released information about the bill she received 20 sponsors.

"I'm surprised the co-sponsors are coming from all different sectors. You'd think they would all be women," Rudy said.

Last year, the National Association of the Commissions for Women formally urged every state to adopt some form of gender balance legislation, McElroy said.

Some of the state's appointed positions include posts with the Turnpike Commission and organizers of the state farm show.