Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Women in the United States House of Representatives
| This article is part of a series on the |
| United States House of Representatives |
|---|
 |
| History of the House |
| Members |
|
|
| Congressional districts |
| Politics and procedure |
| Places |
 United States portal |
Women have served in the United States House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the United States Congress, since 1917 following the election of Republican Jeannette Rankin from Montana, the first woman in Congress.[1] In total, 396 women have been U.S. representatives and eight more have been non-voting delegates. As of January 3, 2025, there are 125 women in the U.S. House of Representatives (not including four female non-voting delegates), making women 28.7% of the total. Of the 404 women who have served in the House, 269 have been Democrats (including four from U.S. territories and the District of Columbia) and 135 have been Republicans (including three from U.S. territories, including pre-statehood Hawaii). One woman was the 52nd Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California.
Women have been elected to the House of Representatives from 49 of the 50 states. Mississippi is the only state that has not elected a woman to the House of Representatives, though it has elected a woman to the United States Senate. In 1917, Montana was the first state to send a woman to the House of Representatives and to Congress; in 2025, North Dakota became the most recent state to send its first woman to the House. Women have also been sent to Congress from five of the six territories of the United States; the final territory to send a woman to the House of Representatives is the Northern Mariana Islands, also in 2025. California has elected more women to Congress than any other state, with 50 U.S. representatives elected since 1923. To date, no woman who has served in the House has ever previously served in the Senate, has been elected to represent more than one state in non-consecutive elections, switched parties, or served as a third-party member in her career, although one was reelected as an independent.
- ^ Katz, Elizabeth D. (July 30, 2021). "Sex, Suffrage, and State Constitutional Law: Women's Legal Right to Hold Public Office". Rochester, NY. SSRN 3896499.
Previous Page Next Page
