Record Number of Women Legislators

by Karl Kurtz

The number of women state legislators in the United States increased by 42 to 1,709 as a result of last week's election, according to a preliminary count by Katie Fischer, coordinator of the Women's Legislative Network of NCSL.  Women will constitute about 23.2% of all state legislators when sessions begin in 2007.  That's a record but not by much:the proportion of women legislators has not moved more than a few tenths of a percentage point since 2000. 

The number of women legislators grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s but the growth rate tapered off in the 1990s and 2000s, according to data from Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics.

In five states, women constitute more than one-third of all legislators: Vermont, Minnesota, Colorado, Maryland and New Hampshire.  They make up less than 15% of the membership in South Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.