Even if you don’t like what the North Carolina General Assembly does, you must admit that the make-up of our legislature is more diverse than at any point in history.

That diversity became more obvious in the early 1990s, when Republicans assumed control of the state House. Since then, control has gone back and forth.

In terms of gender, race and religion, our legislators are much more representative of our demographics than before.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research reports that women and African Americans are serving in record numbers. The center was founded in 1977 as an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit research corporation to evaluate state government programs and to study public policy issues in North Carolina.

The center’s latest report shows that the number of women elected to the House has doubled from 16 in 1985 to 32 in 2005. In the Senate, numbers grew from four to seven in the same 20 years.

Representation by African Americans more than doubled in the Senate but grew at a slower rate in the House. The report says there are 19 African Americans in the House, up from 13 in 1985. The number climbed from three to seven in the Senate.

Hispanics are showing a slight increase, but there has been almost no change in representation by Native Americans. The House gained its first Native American representative in 1991 and that number is unchanged in 2005. The Senate has no Native Americans at all. The first Hispanic was elected to the House in 1995, but the Senate did not get its first Hispanic until 2003, and those numbers are unchanged this year. Sen. Tom Apodaca of Henderson, the lone Hispanic in the Senate, is deputy Republican leader.

If women were truly represented in the legislature, the numbers would be about equal. However, it is comforting to know that women do hold some leadership roles.

The center report shows that women hold two chairmanships of the House Appropriations Committee and three in the Senate. Women also chair other powerful committees, such as Education, Finance and Transportation.

Progress has also been made in Council of State positions. Elaine Marshall became the first woman to serve as secretary of state in 1996 and was re-elected last year. Beverly Perdue became the first woman lieutenant governor in 2000 and was also reelected.

In 2000, North Carolinians elected two other women to statewide office, Cherie Berry as secretary of labor and Meg Scott Phipps as secretary of agriculture. Phipps, descended from the politically powerful Scott family, was forced from office two years ago because of a campaign finance scandal and is now serving a prison sentence. That was a sad situation and a disgrace, but we have been forgiving in the past of male misbehavior.

“I think women’s public policy is very different from men’s public policy,” Sen. Ellie Kinnaird said at a recent forum on “The State of Women in the State.” The Orange County Democrat formerly represented Moore County in the state Senate.

Ran Coble, the center’s executive director, says that women often focus on curbing domestic violence, providing affordable child care and pay equity. He left out education, a traditional concern of women.

Gender and race are easier to specify in statistical form than occupations, but lawyers do not necessarily dominate the legislature. In 2005 the House has 41 members whose occupations are in the areas of business and sales, whereas there are 21 attorneys. The Senate has 18 attorneys and 15 in business and sales. The House has 16 in education, 10 in real estate, eight in health care and three homemakers.

Other occupations include farming, construction, the ministry and manufacturing.

The interesting trend is in a growing field: retirement. The Senate has 14 retirees, the House 34. Twenty years ago there were six retirees in the Senate and 13 in the House.

Now that is a trend worth exploring. Does it reflect an aging population and medical advances that allow people to live longer? Does it mean that retirees are more socially aware and thus more politically active today?

Or, more ominously, does it mean that we are moving toward a full-time professional legislature, making it increasingly more difficult for working people to serve?