Many states have more women serving in the legislature than NJ

🚺 NJ is middle of the pack for having women serving in the state legislature
🚺 Many women of color have been elected to the NJ Senate & Assembly
🚺 A Rutgers University expert explains why diversity is important

A new report finds New Jersey is in the middle of the pack when it comes to women’s representation in state legislatures across the country.

Jean Sinzdak, the associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said 35% of the State Senate and Assembly seats in New Jersey are held by women, which means Jersey ranks 21st in the nation.

“New Jersey does have, among the women serving, one of the most diverse caucuses in the country, more than half of the women serving in our legislature are women of color,” she said.

Women of color make up 54.8% of women in the Jersey legislature, 63.6% in the State Senate, and 51.6% in the Assembly.

A total of 42 women currently hold elected office in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly, including:

• 12 Blacks
• 8 Latinas
• 19 Whites
• 3 Asian Americans

A breakthrough for NJ

Sinzdak said last November, for the first time ever, 3 Asian-American women were elected to the state legislature, “so while we had been doing relatively well in terms of the diversity in women serving, you know there are obviously some gaps there and still are some gaps.”

She stressed it’s important to not only have women, but women of different races backgrounds and ethnicities in the legislature.

“We want our state government to be reflective of the communities that they serve, so we want a diversity and representation in all kinds of ways.”

The value of diversity

She noted people of different backgrounds bring different perspectives and priorities to the policy-making process and “we just want to make sure that all the voices are at the table when important decisions are being made that affect all of us.”

Center for American Women and Politics data show across the nation in different state legislatures (new records noted with an asterisk) there are:

• Asian American/Pacific Islander women: 98* (91D, 6R, 1NP) Asian American/Pacific Islander women, including 84 (80D, 4R) women who identify as Asian American/Pacific Islander alone and 14 (11D, 2R, 1NP) women who identify as Asian American/Pacific Islander in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 78, set in 2022.

• Black women: 372* (367D, 3R, 2I) Black women, including 355 (350D, 3R, 2I) women who identify as Black alone and 17 (17D) women who identify as Black in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 369, set in 2022.

• Latinas: 190* (166D, 24R) Latinas, including 167 (147D, 20R) women who identify as Latina alone and 23 (19D, 4R) women who identify as Latina in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 156, set in 2021.

• Native American women: 36* (30D, 6R) Native American women, including 29 (24D, 5R) women who identify as Native American alone and 7 (6D, 1R) women who identify as Native American in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 32, set in 2022.

• Middle Eastern or North African women: 13* (13D) Middle Eastern or North African women, including 8 (8D) women who identify as Middle Eastern or North African alone and 5 (5D) women who identify as Middle Eastern or North African in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures. The previous record was 11, set in 2021.

• White women: 1,728* (945D, 759R, 4I, 20NP) white women, including 1,691 (916D, 752R, 4I, 19NP) women who identify as white alone and 37 (29D, 7R, 1NP) women who identify as white in combination with other races/ethnicities, serve in state legislatures.

• Multiracial women: 2 (2D) women who identify as multiracial alone serve in state legislatures.

The Center relies on officeholders’ self-identification to determine race and ethnicity, contacting current officeholders directly to confirm their preferred identification in addition to using public records where officeholders have self-identified.

Racial and ethnic identification could not be confirmed for 25 of the 2,412 women state legislators serving nationwide.

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