State Legislature

Women in State Legislatures 2024

Women in State Legislative Leadership 2024

Women as a Percentage of State Legislative Caucuses

State-by-state data on women as a percentage of Democratic and Republican state legislators.

Representativeness of Women State Legislators by Race/Ethnicity and State

State-by-state data on women’s state legislative representation by race/ethnicity compared to women’s representation in the population by race/ethnicity.  

Fact Sheet Archive on Women in State Legislatures (1977-present)

Women in State Legislative Elections: Historical State-by-State Summary

Historical information on women in State Legislative elections by state.

  • Do Term Limits Help Women Get Elected?

    by Susan J. Carroll and Krista Jenkins
    Social Science Quarterly 82 (March 2001)

    The authors' analysis suggests that term limits, unaccompanied by efforts to recruit women to run for term-limited seats, may be insufficient to increase the number of women state legislators. 

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    Women and Term Limits
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  • “Partisan Dynamics of the Gender Gap among State Legislators”

    by Susan J. Carroll
    Spectrum: The Journal of State Government (Fall 2002) 

    Overall, women state legislators today are more liberal in their political ideology and policy attitudes than their male colleagues. Today’s gender gap is due more to the disproportionate number of Democrats among women legislators. The greatest change over time has taken place among Republican women representatives, who are more conservative and more like their male counterparts. 

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  • "Political Parties and the Recruitment of Women to State Legislatures"

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Journal of Politics 2002, Volume 64 (August)

    This article analyzes the role of political parties in shaping women's representation across the U.S. states. 

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