The Gender Paradox in U.S. Politics: Women Are Advancing in State Legislatures but Stall Elsewhere

The 2024 general election saw major gains for the Republican Party, winning control over the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate. As conservatives and Trump-allies, who have sworn on ending DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) efforts, prepare to assume their new posts in January, new data shows that for the first time in 2016, women did not see a net gain in congressional representation.

In state legislatures, however, there is a different story.

At the national level, no more than 151 women will serve in Congress come January 2025, the same that served on Election Day 2024, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Women also remain vastly underrepresented, holding just 28% of all congressional seats.

The exact number of women serving in the 119th Congress remains uncertain, depending on the result in U.S. Representative Michelle Steel's (R-California) extremely close contest in California's 41st congressional district. If she loses her bid, the number of women will drop by one from Election Day 2024 to January 3, 2025, making it the first time in 46 years that this figure dropped as a result of an election, according to Forbes.

Why are there less women in Congress?

There could be a myriad of reasons for these figures. For instance, there was a record number of women incumbents not running for re-election this year; there was also a drop in women's congressional candidacies. But a possible overarching theme—it was a particularly bad year for Democrats up and down the ballot, a significant trend given that Democratic women continue to be over two-thirds of women on general election congressional ballots.

While the number of women serving in Congress went down, the number of women elected to state offices rose. Women serving in state legislatures saw some gains, setting a new record high across the country.

State legislatures turn female

At least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures in 2025, which accounts for 33.2% of state seats across the country. That was an uptick from 2,431 last year, which also was a record, according to the Rutgers report. That is without counting the nearly 50 women in almost 40 races that are still too close to call.

When split by political party, the report projects there will be at least 1,579 Democratic women in state legislative seats, just shy of the record set in 2024, which was 1,593. On the other hand, the number of Republican women serving in state legislatures is projected to beat the 2024 record, which was 815, according to The Hill. In 2025, at least 851 Republican women will serve in these legislatures.

The most notable gains in this category happened in Colorado and New Mexico, where women will make up most lawmakers for the first time, the Associated Press reports. In New Mexico, voters sent an additional 11 women to the chambers, while Colorado— which had attained gender parity in 2023— is set to tip over to slight female majority in the upcoming year.

However, at least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina.

Earlier this year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Come 2025, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate.

So why does this matter? More women means more perspectives in lawmaking and problem solving, experts say.

"Research shows that women bring distinct lived experiences and perspectives to congressional policymaking, changing not only conversations but also outcomes," Kelly Dittmar, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers-Camden and Director of Research at the Center for American Women and Politics, wrote in Forbes.

"Women presence also contributes to institutional progress by challenging deeply-rooted norms, processes, and expectations. Finally, increasing women's representation disrupts perceptions that men are the rule and women are the exception when it comes to who can and should hold positions of political power," she concluded.