Milestones for Women in New Jersey Politics

Margaret Laird (R) and Jennie Van Ness (R) became the first two women elected to the New Jersey Assembly.

Rebecca Estell Bourgeois Winston (D) of Estell Manor became the first woman to serve as mayor in New Jersey. 

Mary Teresa Norton (D) became the first woman to represent New Jersey in Congress, serving in the US House of Representatives from 1925 to 1951. To date, no woman has represented New Jersey in the US Senate. 

Madaline A. (Worthy) Williams (D) became the first Black woman elected to the New Jersey Assembly. 

Marion West Higgins (R) became the first woman speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, and was the third woman in the nation to be the speaker of a state house.  

Mildred Barry Hughes (D) became the first woman elected to the New Jersey Senate. 

Wynona Lipman (D-Essex County) became the first Black woman elected to a county freeholder board in New Jersey. 

Wynona Lipman (D) became the first Black woman to serve in the New Jersey Senate. 

Ruth Carpenter (R) of Hunterdon County became the first woman elected sheriff in New Jersey. 

Jane Burgio (R) became the first woman appointed secretary of state in New Jersey. 

Marie Garibaldi became the first woman to serve on New Jersey's Supreme Court.

Nidia Davila-Colon (D-Hudson County) became the first Latina elected to a county freeholder board. 

Deborah Poritz became New Jersey’s first female attorney general.

Christine Todd Whitman (R) became the first woman (and only woman to date) to serve as New Jersey’s governor. 

Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D) became the first Latina to serve in the New Jersey Assembly. 

Deborah Poritz became the first woman to serve as chief justice on the New Jersey State Supreme Court. 

M. Teresa Ruiz (D) became the first Latina to serve in the New Jersey Senate. 

Kim Guadagno (R) took office as New Jersey’s first lieutenant governor. 

Barbara Buono (D) became the first woman to be elected majority leader of the New Jersey State Senate.

Sheila Y. Oliver (D) became the first woman of color (and second woman) to serve as speaker of the New Jersey Assembly. She was the second Black women in the nation to serve as speaker of a lower house. 

Mildred Scott (D-Middlesex County) became the first Black woman elected county sheriff in New Jersey, as well as the first woman elected sheriff in Middlesex County. 

Bonnie Watson Coleman (D) became the first Black woman and the first woman of color to represent New Jersey in Congress. 

Susan Shin-Angulo (D-Camden County) became the first Asian American woman elected to a county freeholder board in New Jersey. 

Sheila Oliver (D) became the first woman of color to serve as New Jersey's lieutenant governor and the first woman of color to serve in a statewide office in New Jersey. 

Fabiana Pierre-Louis was sworn in as an associate justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court on Sept. 1, 2020, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the state's Supreme Court. 

Sadaf Jaffer (D-16), Shama Haider (D-37), and Ellen Park (D-37) are elected to the New Jersey Assembly, becoming the first Asian or Pacific Islander women elected to the legislature. 

M. Teresa Ruiz (D) became the first Latina elected to serve as majority leader in the New Jersey Senate.