Women will form majority of state legislators in Colorado for first time new mexico But at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.

While women are filling in in record numbers state legislative seats In 2025, the overall increase will be slight, filling just over a third of legislative seats. Races are still being called in some states.

“We certainly want to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases each election cycle to get to a place where equity in state legislatures is less new and more normal,” said Kelly Dittmar, CAWP research director. It is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of seats nationwide. According to CAWP, the previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women.

The number of Republican women, at least 851, would break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers in 2024.

“But Republican women are still vastly underrepresented compared to Democratic women,” said CAWP director Debbie Walsh.

States that added women to legislatures

At last count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado, where women will make up the majority of lawmakers for the first time.

In New Mexico, voters sent 11 more women to legislatures. Colorado previously reached gender parity in 2023 and will reach a slight female majority next year.

States are following NevadaThis became the first country in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Women will make up nearly 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada next year, well above parity.

Women in the California Senate will also form the majority of the chamber for the first time in 2025. Women also made significant gains in South Dakota, increasing their total by at least nine.

States losing women in legislatures

At least thirteen states had fewer female legislators than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina.

Only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate earlier this year lost the primaries after stopping the abortion ban from passing. There will be only two Democratic women in the 46-member Senate next year.

No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper house, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of registered voters in the state.

Half the members in the GOP-dominated state were elected in 2012 or earlier, so it would likely take until the 2040s for any future Republican woman elected to rise to leadership or committee chair positions in the chamber, which allocates leadership positions based on seniority. .

The net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only 13% of legislators in South Carolina, making the state the second lowest in the nation for female representation. Only West Virginia The proportion of women in the parliament is less.

West Virginia will lose another woman from the legislative ranks, further exacerbating the problem of representation in the legislature, where women will make up only 11% of legislators.

Why is it important?

Many women, lawmakers and experts say women’s voices are needed in policy debates, especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades.

Walsh, the CAWP director, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will bring more policies and regulations to states. She said the experiences and perspectives offered by women will be increasingly needed, especially on issues related to reproductive rights, health care, education and security. child care.

“States may have to start where the federal government can actually move away,” Walsh said. “And who serves in these institutions matters now more than ever.”

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This version corrects the number of women who are lawmakers and the number of Republican women who are lawmakers, based on a correction from CAWP.

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