Women Gain Seats at the Legislative Table.

• Author: Ziegler, Katie
• Position: STATESTATS - Brief article - Statistical data

This is a banner year for women in state legislatures, as 2018 marks the first time that the share of female legislators nationwide has reached 25 percent. The symbolic crossing of the one-quarter threshold is noteworthy because of just how long it has taken to get here. The share of women in legislatures reached 20 percent following the 1992 election, dubbed the "Year of the Woman" due to a record number of women elected to the U.S. Senate. In the following years, however, the number of women at the state level grew quite slowly, with a notable flattening of the trend line over the past decade.

The 2017 election in the Virginia House of Delegates and several special elections in the fall were responsible for the increase. Women made headlines in Virginia for running, and winning, in large numbers. The Virginia House has 11 additional women serving this year. Those results have kept the momentum of women considering elective office going at a steady clip. Both partisan and nonpartisan organizations that recruit and train women to run for office report a surge of interest in the...