Female state legislators in the United States

Women have served in state legislatures in the United States since 1895. Their ranks have increased steadily with the advent of nationwide women's suffrage after 1920 but they remain underrepresented.

History

The first women to serve in any state legislature were Clara Cressingham, Carrie C. Holly and Frances S. Klock, who were all elected in 1894 to the Colorado State House of Representatives.[1] All three were elected the year after women in Colorado obtained the right to vote through popular election in 1893.[2] As Secretary of the House Republican Caucus, Cressingham was the first woman to fill a leadership position in an American legislature.[3] In 1896, Martha Hughes Cannon became the first woman elected to an upper body of a state legislature when she defeated her own husband, Angus M. Cannon, for a seat in the Utah State Senate.[4]

The 50th state to see the debut of female state legislators in their lower house was Hawaii in 1959, who elected Dorothy Devereux and Eureka Forbes to their House of Representatives upon admittance to statehood. Alabama's Senate was the 50th upper house to welcome women when Ann Bedsole and Frances Strong joined the Senate in 1983.[5]

In 2016, the highest shares of female members of a state legislature - at least 35% per state legislature - were in Colorado (30/65 in the House, 12/35 in the Senate), Vermont (65/150 in the House, 9/30 in the Senate), and Arizona (19/60 in the House, 13/30 in the Senate).[6] The shares in Colorado and Vermont decreased to below 40% in 2017, while Arizona, Illinois, Nevada and Washington all saw their numbers increase up to between 35% and 39%. Altogether in 2017, women constitute 24.8% of all state legislators in the United States,[7] a ratio that has increased by less than 4 percentage points since 1994.

Only four chambers have reached a near or absolute majority of women:

List of first women to serve in state and territorial legislatures

State House Senate
Year Name Year Name
Alabama 1923 Hattie Hooker Wilkins 1983 Ann Bedsole
Frances Strong
Alaska (territory) 1937 Nell Scott 1949 Anita Garnick
Alaska (state) 1959 Helen Fischer
Dora Sweeney
1959 Irene Ryan
Arizona 1915 Rachel Emma Berry 1915 Frances Willard Munds
Arkansas 1922 Frances Hunt 1964 Dorathy Allen
California 1919 Esto Broughton
Grace Dorris
Elizabeth Hughes
Anna Saylor
1977 Rose Ann Vuich
Colorado 1895 Clara Cressingham
Carrie Clyde Holly
Frances Klock
1913 Helen Robinson
Connecticut 1921 Emily Sophie Brown[10]
Rev. Grace Edwards[11]
Lillian Frink[12]
Mary Hooker[13]
Helen Jewett[14][15]
1925 Alice Merritt[16][17]
Delaware 1925 Florence Hanby 1947 Vera Davis
Florida 1929 Edna Giles Fuller 1963 Beth Johnson
Georgia 1923 Bessie Kempton
Viola Ross Napier
1925 Margaret Johnson
Hawaii
(territory)
1925 Rosalie Keliʻinoi 1933 Elsie Wilcox
Hawaii
(state)
1959 Dorothy Devereux
Eureka Forbes
1963 Patsy Mink
Idaho 1899 Clara Campbell
Hattie Noble
Mary Allen Wright
1935 Margaret Bognet Pike
Illinois 1923 Lottie Holman O’Neill 1925 Florence Fifer Bohrer
Indiana 1921 Julia D. Nelson 1943 Arcada Balz
Iowa 1929 Carolyn Campbell Pendray 1933 Carolyn Campbell Pendray
Kansas 1919 Minnie J. Grinstead 1929 Patricia Solander
Kentucky 1922 Mary Elliott Flanery 1950 Carolyn Moore
Louisiana 1940 Doris Lindsey Holland
Beatrice Hawthorne Moore
1936 Doris Lindsey Holland
Maine 1923 Dora Pinkham 1927 Katharine Allen
Claire Carter
Dora Pinkham
Maryland 1922 Mary Risteau 1935 Mary Risteau
Massachusetts 1923 Sylvia Donaldson
Susan Fitzgerald
1937 Sybil Holmes
Michigan 1925 Cora Belle Reynolds Anderson 1921 Eva McCall Hamilton
Minnesota 1923 Myrtle Cain
Sue Metzger Dickey Hough
Hannah Jensen Kempfer
Mabeth Hurd Paige
1927 Laura Johnson Naplin
Mississippi 1924 Nellie Nugent Somerville 1924 Carrie Belle Kearney
Missouri 1923 Mellcene Smith
Sarah Lucille Turner
1973 Mary Gant
Montana 1917 Margaret Smith Hathaway
Emma Ingalls
1945 Ellenore Bridenstine
Nebraska 1925* Mabel Gillespie
Clara Humphrey
Sarah Muir
1945 Nell Krause
Nevada 1919 Sadie Hurst 1935 Frances Friedhoff
New Hampshire 1921 Jessie Doe
Dr. Mary Farnum
1931 Edgar Maude Ferguson
New Jersey 1921 Margaret Laird
Jennie Van Ness
1966 Mildred Barry Hughes
New Mexico 1923 Bertha M. Paxton 1925 Louise Holland Coe
New York 1919 Mary Lilly
Ida Sammis
1935 Rhoda Fox Graves
North Carolina 1921 Lillian Clement 1931 Gertrude Dills McKee
North Dakota 1923 Minnie Craig
Nellie Doughterty
1951 Agnes Kjorlie Geelan
Ohio 1923 Nettie Clapp
Lulu Gleason
Adelaide Ott
May Van Wye
1923 Nettie Loughead
Maude Waitt
Oklahoma 1921 Bessie McColgin 1921 Lamar Looney
Oregon 1915 Marian Towne 1915 Kathryn Clarke
Pennsylvania 1923 Alice Bentley
Rosa DeYoung
Sarah McCune Gallaher
Helen Grimes
Sarah Gertrude MacKinney
Lillie Pitts
Martha Speiser
Martha Thomas
1925 Flora Vare
Rhode Island 1923 Isabelle Ahearn O'Neill 1929 Lulu Mowry Schlesinger
South Carolina 1945 Harriet Johnson 1929 Mary Ellis
South Dakota 1923 Gladys Pyle 1937 Jessie Sanders
Tennessee 1923 Marian Scudder Griffin 1921 Anna Lee Worley
Texas 1923 Edith Wilmans 1927 Margie Neal
Utah 1897 Sarah E. Anderson
Eurithe LaBarthe
1897 Martha Hughes Cannon
Vermont 1921 Edna Beard 1923 Edna Beard
Virginia 1924 Sarah Lee Fain
Helen Henderson
1980 Eva Mae Scott
Washington 1913 Frances Axtell
Nena Jolidon Croake
1923 Reba Hurn
West Virginia 1923 Anna Johnson Gates 1934 Hazel Edna Hyre
Wisconsin 1925 Mildred Barber
Hellen Brooks
Helen Thompson
1975 Kathryn Morrison
Wyoming 1911 Mary Bellamy 1931 Dora McGrath
Territories
American Samoa 1953 Zilpher Jennings
Mabel Reid
Guam 1955 Cynthia Torres
Lagrimas Untalan
Unicameral
Puerto Rico 1933 María Luisa Arcelay De La Rosa 1937 María Martinez De Pérez Almiroty
U.S. Virgin Islands 1953 Ann Christian Abramson Unicameral

References

  1. "First Women to Serve in State and Territorial Legislatures". National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  2. "House Bill 118". State of Colorado. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  3. Kopel, Jerry. "Colorado Women First to Reach Statehouse". The Colorado Statesman. Archived from the original on 25 March 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  4. "Education & Resources - National Women's History Museum - NWHM". www.nwhm.org. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
  5. Legislatures, National Conference of State. "First Women to Serve in State and Territorial Legislatures". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  6. Legislatures, National Conference of State. "Women in State Legislatures for 2016". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  7. Legislatures, National Conference of State. "Women in State Legislatures for 2017". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  8. Women Dominate New Hampshire State Senate, NPR, November 9, 2008, 4:00 PM ET
  9. https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/state/with-latest-appointment-women-represent-50-of-oregon-house/article_1300f1a6-af40-11ea-bb8f-1b846641619b.html
  10. http://www.herhatwasinthering.org/biography.php?id=5957
  11. Votes and More for Women: Suffrage and After in Connecticut, Carole Nichols https://books.google.com/books?id=aiKx3Q74lsEC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
  12. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/16/archives/mrs-lillian-mae-frink-special-to-the-new-york-tlmes.html
  13. https://www.environmentalsciencesmagnet.org/who-mary-hooker
  14. Votes and More for Women: Suffrage and After in Connecticut, Carole Nichols https://books.google.com/books?id=aiKx3Q74lsEC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
  15. Women in American Politics: History and Milestones By Doris Weatherford | https://books.google.com/books?id=wW5wumFHKSEC&pg=SL11-PA90&lpg=SL11-PA90
  16. https://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/p15019coll2/14/default.jpg?highlightTerms=Alice%20Merritt
  17. Women in American Politics: History and Milestones, by Doris Weatherford | "New England's first female senator was Alice Virginia Merritt of Connecticut. A Republican, she lived in the capital city, Hartford, where her husband, Joseph Merritt, founded a still extant firm specializing in blueprints. She had served as a volunteer in the Red Cross Motor Corps during World War I, meaning she was independent enough to drive at a time when most women did not. Connecticut had two-year senate terms, and Merritt was reelected in 1926. She lived until 1950."
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