NEW YORK, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 U.S. states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released on Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).
"While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling just over third of legislative seats," reported The Associated Press about the change.
"We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal," said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which 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 percent of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP.
By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases are in New Mexico and Colorado where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers. ■