The great news: The number of U.S. women in political office is officially growing, at almost all levels of government. The House of Representatives is now 29 percent women, the Senate 25 percent. Thirty-two percent (the highest percentage ever) of the elected executives currently running our states in positions like governor, lieutenant governor, and treasurer are women. Some 2,432 of the 7,386 state legislature seats in America are held by women. And at the city and town level, women—especially women of color—are making huge gains. Have we reached a true gender parity that reflects our country’s 51 percent female population? Not yet. But still, progress.
The less great news: More and more women may be winning political power, but their jobs are still ridiculously hard. Much harder, in some cases, than their male colleagues’. To understand the hurdles they face, many of which vary on a state-by-state or even county-by-county basis, we teamed up with CAWP and used data from groups like Vote Mama to create this interactive map.
Where exactly are women serving? Which elected officials get parental leave? What states pay legislators the most...and the least? Who gets childcare, and where are new moms forced to fend for themselves? Which state legislatures have strength in diversity? Click on the pins below to find out.
Nicole Pasulka is Cosmopolitan’s senior features editor. She's written about gender, activism, and criminal justice for New York magazine, Harper’s, Mother Jones, VICE, The Believer, and more. Her writing has been anthologized in the Best American series and featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Her first book, How You Get Famous: Ten Years of Drag Madness in Brooklyn, about NYC’s drag scene, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022 and hailed by the New York Times as “the story of America now.
