New Records for Women by Race and Ethnicity in State Legislatures

The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, has completed compiling race and ethnicity data for women in state legislatures following the 2022 elections, finding new records for state legislative representation for women in nearly all race and ethnicity groups.

Here is current CAWP data on women serving in state legislatures by race and ethnicity, with new records noted with an asterisk:

• Asian American/Pacific Islander women: 98* (91D, 6R, 1NP) Asian American/Pacific Islander women, including 84 (80D, 4R) women who identify as Asian American/Pacific Islander alone and 14 (11D, 2R, 1NP) women who identify as Asian American/Pacific Islander in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 78, set in 2022. 
• Black women: 372* (367D, 3R, 2I) Black women, including 355 (350D, 3R, 2I) women who identify as Black alone and 17 (17D) women who identify as Black in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 369, set in 2022. 
• Latinas: 190* (166D, 24R) Latinas, including 167 (147D, 20R) women who identify as Latina alone and 23 (19D, 4R) women who identify as Latina in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 156, set in 2021. 
• Native American women: 36* (30D, 6R) Native American women, including 29 (24D, 5R) women who identify as Native American alone and 7 (6D, 1R) women who identify as Native American in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 32, set in 2022. 
• Middle Eastern or North African women: 13* (13D) Middle Eastern or North African women, including 8 (8D) women who identify as Middle Eastern or North African alone and 5 (5D) women who identify as Middle Eastern or North African in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 11, set in 2021.
• White women: 1,728* (945D, 759R, 4I, 20NP) white women, including 1,691 (916D, 752R, 4I, 19NP) women who identify as white alone and 37 (29D, 7R, 1NP) women who identify as white in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures.
• Multiracial women: 2 (2D) women who identify as multiracial alone serve in state legislatures. 

CAWP relies on officeholders’ self-identification to determine race and ethnicity, contacting current officeholders directly to confirm their preferred identification in addition to using public records where officeholders have self-identified. Racial and ethnic identification could not be confirmed for 25 of the 2,412 women state legislators serving nationwide. With this data collection process complete, see the latest information on the race and ethnicity of women serving in state legislatures at our Women in State Legislatures 2023 and Women Officeholders by Race and Ethnicity fact pages, as well as in the CAWP Women Elected Officials Database.

A brief note of caution: adding totals from each racial and ethnic group above will not yield an overall tally of women of color serving in state legislatures, as it will double count officeholders who identify with more than one racial or ethnic group. CAWP no longer reports aggregate numbers of women of color. Additionally, CAWP added Middle Eastern/North African as a category of self-identification starting in 2019, meaning that our records only reflect data from 2019 to present. CAWP added Alaska Native as a category for self-identification for the first time in 2019 and Native Hawaiian as a category for self-identification for the first time in 2021. These changes should be taken into account when making historical comparisons within this group. Learn more from our Methodological Statement on Race and Ethnicity.