Women in the State Legislatures

EARLY HALF A CENTURY has passed since the Nineteenth Amendment gave American women the right to vote and, with it, the opportunity to assume political leadership positions. A recent article by the author' examined the biographies of the seventy women who have served in Congress since 1917. This report, a continuation of a series on women in public office, focuses on women in the state legislatures. The purposes of this paper are: (1) to review the trends in women's representation and party affiliation in both state legislatures and Congress from 1920 to 1964; (2) to discuss the effects of geography on the impact women have made in the state legislatures; (3) to examine the background and political experience of a sample of 185 women in the 1963-64 state legislatures; and (4) to report their reasons for seeking political office and their evaluation of women's assets and liabilities in political life.