Women’s state legislative representation reached a new record high as a result of the 2024 election, hitting 2,468 (33.4%) as of January 21, 2025. As of April 2025, 2,473 (1,583D, 868R, 17NP, 5Ind) women serve in state legislatures, holding 33.5% of all seats; 1,876 (1,197D, 671R, 3NP, 5Ind) women serve in state houses and 597 (386D, 197R, 14NP) women serve in state senates.1 Women are 21.3% of Republican and 49.3% of Democratic state legislators.
Of all women serving in state legislatures as of April 2025, 64% are Democrats and 35.1% are Republicans; as of Election Day 2024, 65.3% of women state legislators were Democrats and 33.6% were Republicans. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of men state legislators are Republicans.
From Election Day 2024 to January 21, 2025 – when the last of the states swore in state legislators – the number of women state legislators increased by 44 nationwide; they went from holding 32.8% to 33.4% of state legislative seats. The net gain in women’s state legislative representation was less than half of the gains as a result of elections 2022 and 2020, when the number of women state legislators went up by 116 in each year.
While Republican women remain outnumbered by Democratic women state legislators, Republican women have seen greater percentage gains in representation than Democratic women over the past three election cycles. The number of Republican women state legislators increased (+50) as a result of the 2024 election, while the number of Democratic women state legislators dropped very slightly (-2). This marks a 6.1% increase in Republican women and a 0.1% drop in Democratic women state legislators from Election Day 2024 to January 2025. In 2020 and 2022, Republican women increased their state legislative representation by 11% and 5.9% respectively, while Democratic women’s percentage gains were smaller (2.9% and 4.4.%). In contrast, the 2018 election marked record gains for Democratic women and a drop in Republican women state legislators. From Election Day 2018 to January 2019, Democratic women’s state legislative representation increased by 25.3% while the number of Republican women state legislators dropped by 6.7%.
The number of women state legislative nominees dropped by 3% from election 2022 to election 2024.2 This is the first drop in women state legislative nominees since 2012. The number of state legislative chambers holding elections varies by cycle; elections were held in 88 state legislative chambers in 2022 and in 85 chambers in 2024. Partisan trends in women’s state legislative nominations changed in 2024 from the previous two cycles. While the number of Republican women nominees increased from 2018 to 2020 and 2020 to 2022, the number dropped from 2022 to 2024. Democratic women have seen less variance over these three cycles, though 2024 marks the first cycle since 2018 where the number of Democratic women state legislative nominees was greater than the previous cycle.
Women continued to fall short of parity with men as state legislative nominees in 2024. Women were 35.1% of all state legislative nominees in 2024, up slightly from 33.3% in election 2022.3 But Democratic women continued to inch closer to parity with men among their party’s nominees; in 2024, women were 49.3% of Democratic state legislative nominees nationwide, up from 48.3% in 2022. Republican women, however, were just less than one-quarter (24.5%) of all Republican state legislative nominees in 2024, up slightly from 24% in 2022.
In 2024, 2,013 of 3,511 (57.3%) women state legislative nominees won seats, including 23.6% of non-incumbent women nominees. Republican women fared better than Democratic women nominees overall, winning at higher rates than Democratic women among both incumbents and non-incumbents.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity
The racial and ethnic diversity among women state legislators reached a new high as a result of the 2024 election. At the start of 2025, 107 (99D, 7R, 1NP) Asian American/Pacific Islander, 398 (389D, 7R, 1Ind, 1NP) Black, 215 (183D, 31R, 1NP) Latina/Hispanic, 17 (17D) Middle Eastern/North African (MENA), 44 (36D, 8R) Native American/Native Hawaiian/Alaska Native, and 1717 (901D, 797R, 4Ind, 15NP) white women served in state legislatures.4 For all groups other than white women, these marked record highs and increases from Election Day 2024.
The number of Asian American/Pacific Islander, Black, Latina/Hispanic, and Native women state legislators increased in both the Democratic and Republican parties as a result of election 2024. However, more than 90% of women of color state legislators are Democrats.
Differences by State
In 2025, two state legislatures – in Colorado and New Mexico – became majority-woman for the first time. Both states reached majority-woman status legislature-wide and within their Houses, but not in their Senates. The Colorado legislature had previously reached gender parity legislature-wide, but women surpassed men as a result of the 2024 election. Women maintained a majority in Nevada in 2025 legislature-wide and in both chambers. In 2018, Nevada became the first state to reach gender parity in its legislature. The Arizona legislature previously achieved majority-woman status for brief periods in both 2023 and 2024.
As of April 2025, women match or exceed men’s representation in seven state legislative chambers: the Nevada House and Senate, the Arizona Senate, the California Senate, the Alaska House, the Colorado House, and the New Mexico House. The number of women in state legislatures (Houses and Senates) went up in 23 states, down in 19 states, and stayed the same in eight states between 2024 and 2025.5 Republican women’s representation increased in 22 state legislatures from 2024 to 2025 and Democratic women gained seats in 18 states. Democratic women saw a drop in state legislative representation in 14 states from 2024 to 2025 and Republican women’s state legislative representation dropped in 15 states as a result of election 2024.
Additional state-by-state detail on the change in women’s state legislative representation as a result of the 2024 election is available via CAWP’s election results page. 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 2024 election, women are more than one-third of state legislators nationwide for the first time in U.S. history. While this is a notable milestone, gender parity in state legislative representation – achieved in only four states and 13 state legislative chambers 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. Republican women have made some progress toward closing this party gap in recent elections. Despite drops in both candidates and nominees from 2022 to 2024, Republican women were responsible for the net gain in all women legislators as a result of the 2024 election. Democratic women saw smaller drops in candidates and a slight increase in nominees from 2022 to 2024, but they fared worse than Republican women in general elections. These data indicate that Republican women state legislative nominees were able to capitalize on Republican success nationwide in the last election, when their party saw a bump in state legislative representation.6
Women’s state legislative power is not determined by numbers alone. Already in 2025, many women have ascended to key leadership posts in state legislatures, including 27 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 – including on issues that have been delegated to states from the federal government.
State legislative elections in 2025 – to be held in 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.