State Legislatures

  • As a result of the 2022 election, a record number of women serve in state legislatures, holding 32.6% of all seats.
  • The net gain in women’s state legislative representation as a result of election 2022 matched that of 2020, but the partisan trend differed. Gains for Democratic women were up in 2022 from 2020, while Republican women’s gains were smaller as a result of election 2022 than they were as a result of the 2020 election. 
  • A record number of women were state legislative nominees in 2022, but women were still just one-third of all state legislative nominees. While women were 48.3% of Democratic state legislative nominees, they were 24% of Republican nominees.
  • The number of women in state legislatures went up in 32 states, down in 12 states, and stayed the same in six states between 2022 and 2023.
  • In 2023, Colorado became the second state in U.S. history whose state legislature reached parity in women’s and men’s representation. Women maintained a majority in Nevada, the first state to reach gender parity in 2018.
  • As of February 2023, women match or exceed men’s representation in six state legislative chambers: the Nevada House and Senate, the Arizona Senate, the New Hampshire Senate, the Colorado House, and the New Mexico House.
  • CAWP’s data on women state legislators by racial and ethnicity will be available later this year upon receipt of racial/ethnic self-identification from newly-elected women legislators.

As of February 2023, a record high 2,411 (1,579D, 806R, 20NP, 6Ind) women serve in state legislatures, holding 32.6% of all seats; 1,819 (1,195D, 617R, 2NP, 5Ind) women serve in state houses and 592 (384D, 189R, 18NP, 1Ind) women serve in state senates, both record highs.1 Women are 20% of Republican and 48.3% of Democratic state legislators.2

Of all women serving in state legislatures as of February 2023, 65.5% are Democrats and 33.4% are Republicans, representing almost no change in the partisan gap in women’s state legislative representation; as of Election Day 2022, 65.5% of women state legislators were Democrats and 33.4% were Republicans. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of men state legislators are Republicans. 

From Election Day 2022 to January 17, 2023 – when the last of the states swore in state legislators – the number of women state legislators increased by 116 nationwide; they went from holding 31.1% to 32.6% of state legislative seats. The net gain in women’s state legislative representation matched the rise as a result of the 2020 election, when the number of women state legislators went up by 116. The partisan trends changed, however, from election 2020 to election 2022. Following the 2020 election, the net gain for Republican women (+74) was greater than that for Democratic women (+43), and the number of Republican women legislators increased by 11% while the number of Democratic women legislators increased by 2.9%. Following the 2022 election, meanwhile, the net gain in Democratic women legislators (+66) was greater than that for Republican women (+45), and the percent increase in Republican women legislators (+5.9%) was only slightly higher than Democratic women (+4.4%).

A record number of women were state legislative nominees in 2022, up by 5.1% from election 2020.3 The percent increase in women state legislative nominees from 2020 to 2022 was moderate compared to the jump in women’s nominations from 2016 to 2018 (+29%), which marked the largest percentage increase in women’s state legislative nominees for at least two decades. In contrast, the number of women nominees for state legislative office increased by less than one percent from 2018 to 2020. From 2020 to 2022, the number of Republican women state legislative nominees rose by 16.8%, while the number of Democratic women state legislative nominees stayed nearly the same (-0.4%). Two cycles of slight declines in Democratic women nominees follow their unmatched increase by 39% between 2016 and 2018, while Republican increases have been relatively steady over the past three cycles.

Women continued to fall short of parity with men as state legislative nominees in 2022. Women were 33.3% of all state legislative nominees in 2022, down slightly from 35.5% in election 2020.4 But Democratic women continued to inch closer to parity with men among their party’s nominees; in 2022, women were 48.3% of Democratic state legislative nominees nationwide, up from 47.7% in 2020. Republican women, however, were less than one-quarter (24%) of all Republican state legislative nominees in 2022, up from 23.1% in 2020.

In 2022, 2,143 of 3,621 (59.2%) women state legislative nominees won seats, including 32.6% of non-incumbent women nominees. Democratic women fared better than Republican women nominees overall, winning at slightly higher rates than Republican women among both incumbents and non-incumbents.

Differences by State

In 2023, Colorado became the second state in U.S. history whose state legislature reached parity in women’s and men’s representation. Women maintained a majority in Nevada, the first state to reach gender parity in 2018. As of February 2023, women match or exceed men’s representation in six state legislative chambers: the Nevada House and Senate, the Arizona Senate, the New Hampshire Senate, the Colorado House, and the New Mexico House.

The number of women in state legislatures (Houses and Senates) went up in 32 states, down in 12 states, and stayed the same in six states between 2022 and 2023.5 Republican women’s representation increased in 22 state legislatures from 2022 to 2023 and Democratic women gained seats in 26 states. Democratic women saw a drop in state legislative representation in 17 states from 2022 to 2023 and Republican women’s state legislative representation dropped in 15 states as a result of election 2022.

These partisan trends diverge slightly from what happened at the state legislative level as a result of election 2020. From 2020 to 2021, Republican women’s representation increased in 27 state legislatures and Democratic women gained seats in 25 states. Democratic women saw a drop in state legislative representation in 15 states from 2020 to 2021 and Republican women’s state legislative representation dropped in ten states as a result of election 2020.

Additional state-by-state detail on the change in women’s state legislative representation as a result of the 2022 election is available via the charts below. And a full ranking of states for women’s state legislative representation is available on CAWP’s women’s state legislative fact sheet.

Looking Ahead

As a result of the 2022 election, women are nearing one-third of state legislators nationwide. While this is a notable milestone, gender parity in state legislative representation – achieved in only two states to date – remains distant. Partisan differences contribute to this reality, with Democratic state legislators almost at gender parity while women represent less than one-quarter of Republican state legislators nationwide. Expediting gender parity in state legislative representation will require closing this party gap from candidacy to officeholding.

Women’s state legislative power is not determined by numbers alone. Already in 2023, many women have ascended to key leadership posts in state legislatures, including 18 women who hold the top leadership position (speaker, senate president, or senate president pro tem) in their chambers. In these roles, women have even greater capacity to shape legislative agendas, determine policy strategy, and influence the trajectory of major policy issues that have been delegated to states from the federal government. 

State legislative elections in 2023 – to be held in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia – offer the next opportunity for monitoring women’s representation as candidates, nominees, and officeholders. Moreover, being attentive to the retention of women already in state legislatures is important to understanding the overall progress toward gender parity. Finally, making significant gains in women’s state legislative representation will require identifying and taking advantage of opportunities for growth, building and/or bolstering in-state support infrastructures for women candidates and officeholders, and expanding focus beyond statewide and federal offices to make clear the importance of increasing women’s representation in state legislatures for both policymaking and building the pool of potential candidates for higher office.

Footnotes

  1. These counts primarily reflect changes as a result of election 2022, which yielded a record level of women’s state legislative representation, with some additional changes occurring between Election Day 2022 and February 2023 as a result of departures and appointments.
  2. State legislative denominators from the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of January 2023. Data on women state legislators from CAWP (as of February 2023).
  3. “Nominees” refer to those candidates who appeared on general election ballots. Four states did not hold state legislative elections in 2023: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia.
  4. Data on total state legislative nominees and winners comes from KnowWho for 2022 and the National Institute for Money in State Politics for 2020.
  5. These counts refer to aggregate changes in women’s state legislative representation between November 8, 2022 and January 17, 2023, when the last of the states swore in state legislators. Four states are included that did not hold state legislative elections in 2022 (LA, MS, NJ, and VA), but may still have seen changes in women’s representation due to other reasons.