The number of mothers serving in state legislatures remains grossly underrepresented despite a “monumental increase” over the past two years, according to a report released Monday.
The Politics of Parenthood report by the VoteMama Foundation found that 7.9% of all 2024 state legislators are mothers with minor children, a 48.6% increase in representation since the data was first collected in 2022. That year, just 5.3% of state lawmakers were women with children under age 18, while they were more than 18% of the American population.
The increase has coincided with gains for women at all levels of elected office. Record numbers of women served in statewide executive offices in 2024, and the number of women in state legislatures has been steadily rising for years, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Meanwhile, issues surrounding reproductive health, childcare costs, and the decision to have children have emerged as issues in the 2024 elections, a debate that promises to inform decisions made in state legislatures across the country over the coming year.
The report’s authors argue that those conversations cannot adequately reflect the needs of caregivers — the majority of whom tend to be women — unless mothers are better represented in public office at the state and national level.
“When moms have a seat at the table, the conversations change, the priorities change, and our policies change,” said Sarah Hague, VoteMama’s chief program officer.
VoteMama is a national advocacy organization dedicated to getting more mothers, especially Democrats, elected to office.
The authors collected information on 2,427 women and nonbinary state legislators from a mixture of historical and contemporary public records that included statements of self-identification by the officeholder. It found that, among the 7,386 state legislators in the United States, 582 are mothers with children under 18.
To achieve proportional representation, Americans would need to elect 763 more mothers with young children to state legislatures.
Mothers with children under the age of 6 are particularly underrepresented and comprise only 1.7% of all state legislators. Women of color with children under 18 are 2.3% of all state legislators. And LGBTQ+ mothers with minor children are less than 1%, the report found.
The report cited Vermont Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D), the first woman of color to serve in the state Senate, who has been pregnant twice during her term as the chairwoman of the Economic Development and Housing Committee.
“It shouldn’t be as uncommon as it is, because when people who have provided care, who think about the invisible care economy, sit at the head of the table, the questions are different,” she said. “The people speaking are different. The agenda is very different.”
It also referenced Tennessee Sen. Charlane Oliver (D), who said she was “appalled” to learn that she would be the only woman with young children in the legislature after she was elected in 2022.
“As a mother of three, I knew I had to be the voice for women and working mothers in our state
who are begging for solutions to our childcare crisis and care economy,” Oliver said. “I have been vocal about the challenges of serving in public office — whether it’s rushing to drop off my kids at three different schools before morning Senate floor sessions, finding childcare to run for office, or affording the high costs of daycare and summer camps.”
While no state legislature has enough mothers with minor children to achieve proportional representation, the states with the highest representation were California, Minnesota, Virginia, Michigan and Nevada.
The states with the lowest representation of mothers with minor children were West Virginia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. For the second year in a row, Alabama was the only state with no mothers of minor children serving in either chamber of its state legislature.
Former Montana Rep. Mallerie Stromswold’s (R) resignation letter was cited in the report’s section on attrition, which studied the reasons women left office.
“The Montana Legislature was designed for people — often men — who have flexible schedules with steady and significant incomes,” she wrote. “Our state is so much more than one type of person. Legislative systems need to adapt so that more young people, students, single parents, and those living on low incomes can serve.”
More than two-thirds of states in recent years have changed their election rules to allow candidates to use campaign money to pay for childcare, a fix that supporters say will make it easier for parents of young children to seek office.
Read more: Ariz., Okla. allow campaign funds to pay for child care
The report authors said more needs to be done to achieve proportional representation. One of the critical barriers of entry: Only four states pay lawmakers what the report determined was a “living wage.” In six states, it found, childcare costs more than a lawmaker’s salary.
Recommendations in the report include increased salaries for state lawmakers, policies allowing for virtual participation, formal paid family and medical leave for legislators, and reimbursement for childcare and dependent care expenses directly related to carrying out official duties.
The report also calls for changes to capitol buildings to make them more accommodating for caregivers, including changing tables, pumping rooms and on-site childcare for legislators and staff.