Women in Texas government

Women make up XX% of the Texas population yet their presence in Texas government is rare, both historically and currently.

Women have been chronically underrepresented in all three branches of Texas government. Texas has had only two female governors in its XXX years of statehood, and many prominent executive positions - such as Lieutenant Governor - still have yet to be filled by women. While the percentage of women in the Texas legislature has increased over the past few legislative sessions, the current percentage of women legislators in both the Texas House and the Texas Senate still falls far short of being reflective of the percentage of women in the overall Texas population. The state's highest courts - the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals - have similarly seen low numbers of female justices throughout their history.

History of Women's Political Involvement in Texas

In 1918, Texas women gained the right to vote in primary elections.

However, attempts to grant women the right to vote in all Texas elections ultimately stalled.

On June 28, 1919, Texas became the first Southern state and the ninth state overall to ratify the 19th Amendment. All Texas women officially gained the right to vote in August 2020 after enough states ratified the amendment to officially make it part of the U.S. Constitution

https://www.nps.gov/articles/texas-women-s-history.htm

In 1918, Annie Webb Blanton became the first woman elected to statewide office in Texas after winning her election bid for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

https://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/emancipation-and-participation-early-office-holders

Executive Branch

Only nine women have been elected to the Texas Executive Branch. Women have served as Governor, State Treasurer or Comptroller of Public Accounts (the State Treasurer position was officially abolished in 1996, at which point the Comptroller of Public Accounts assumed many of the duties formerly held by the State Treasurer), Railroad Commissioner and Agriculture. Women have mostly commonly been elected to the positions of State Treasurer or Comptroller of Public Accounts, sometimes using these positions as springboards to other elected executive office. So far no women have held the position of Lieutenant Governor of Land Commissioner.

NAME	POSITION	YEARS SERVED
Miriam Ferguson	Governor	1925 - 1927; 1933 - 1934
Ann Richards	State Treasurer Governor	1983 - 1990 1991 - 1994
Lena Guerrerro	Railroad Commissioner	1991 - 1992
Kay Bailey Hutchinson	State Treasurer	1991 - 1993
Martha Whitehead	State Treasurer	1993 - 1996
Carole Keeton Strayhorn	Railroad Commissioner Comptroller of Public Accounts	1994 - 1998 1999 - 2006
Elizabeth Ames Jones	Railroad Commissioner	2005 - 2012
Susan Combs	Comptroller of Public Accounts Agriculture Commissioner	2007 - 2014 1999 - 2006
Christi Craddick	Railroad Commissioner	2013 - Present

Ann Richards served as governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. She was the state's second and most recent female governor.

Texas has had only two female governors in its history. Miriam Ferguson served as governor from 1925 - 1927 and from 1933 to 1935, and Ann Richards held the title from 1991 to 1995.

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While there have not been any female governors of Texas since Ann Richards, the number of women elected to the Executive Branch has increased since her election. Prior to 1990, Texans elected only two women to the Executive Branch. After 1990, Texans began regularly electing women to the Executive Branch, and a woman has served in at least one Executive Branch position each term since 1991. Currently, the only elected woman serving in the Texas Executive Branch is Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick.

References: https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/exec/governors/15.html; https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/exec/governors/31.html

https://apps.texastribune.org/2018-texas-women-candidates/

Legislative Branch

A total of 179 women have been elected to the Texas legislative branch. One hundred sixty-one women have been elected to the Texas House of Representatives and 23 women have been elected to the Texas Senate. The first woman elected to the Texas legislature was Edith Wilmans. Wilmans was elected to represent District 50 (Dallas County) in the Texas House in 1922. She served one term during the 38th Legislature. After Wilmans, the Texas House did not have another female representative until the 41st Legislature in 1929. The 41st Legislature marked the first time more than one woman served in the House. It was not until the 46th Legislature in 1939 that women were regularly elected to the Texas House each session. No woman was elected to the Texas Senate until the 40th Legislature in 1927 when Margie E. Neal was elected for her first of four terms. One woman per session was regularly elected per session from the 50th Legislature in 1947 to the 67th Legislature 1981. In the 68th Legislature of 1983, no women were elected to the Texas Senate. It was not until the 69th Legislature in 1985 that the Senate began regularly electing women each session, and it was not until the 70th Session in 1987 that the more than one woman was first elected to the Texas Senate.

Two notable women to serve in the Texas Legislative Branch are Judith Zaffirini (Senate-Democrat) and Senfronia Thompson (House-Democrat). Both women have earned the title of the longest serving woman in their respective chambers and are among the overall longest serving Texas legislators. Both women are also high-ranking in their respective chambers.

Zaffirini is the longest-serving and highest-ranking ranking senator among both women and Hispanics. She has served 19 sessions in the Texas Senate, first winning election as the District 21 Senator to the 1987 70th Legislature. She was the first Mexican American woman to be elected to the Senate or to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Senate and is currently the second highest-ranking Senator. Zaffrini has cast more consecutive votes than any other state or national legislator in America, and in 2017, she was recognized for casting her 60,000th consecutive vote during the 85th Texas Legislature. As of 2021, Zaffrini had a 100% perfect attendance record for Senate votes and had cast 67,923 consecutive voters other than a 2003 deliberate Democratic attempt to break the Senate quorum in opposition to a redistricting bill that would have disenfranchised voters in her district. In addition to casting the most votes of any Texas legislator, Zaffrini has also passed the most bills of any Texas legislator in state history. As of the end of the 87th Legislature in 2021, she had passed a total of 1,262 bills and 38 substantive resolutions. In the 85th Legislature, Zaffrini - a Democrat - passed a personal record high 108 bills in a Republican-majority chamber that then had to be signed by a Republican governor. In 2021, Zaffrini passed 106 bills, making her the legislator with the most bills passed for the fourth consecutive session.

Senfronia Thompson is the longest-serving woman and African American legislator in the history of the Texas Legislature. Thompson first won election

Texas has consistently ranked in the bottom half of American states for its percentage of female state legislators. Between 1975 and 2021, Texas has on average had the 35th most female legislators of any state. Texas reached a high of 25th in the nation for percentage of female legislators in 2009 and 2010 - the only two years the state has been in the top half of states - and a low of 43rd in 1983 and 1984.

Senfronia Thompson (25 sessions) https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=141

[ideally this is where I'd show a chart with the percentage of each House and Senate that was female]

https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/membersearch.cfm

https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/membersearch.cfm

Judicial Branch

INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH

ALL FEMALE SUPREME COURT

TEXAS SUPREME COURT
NAME	YEARS SERVED	ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Rose Spector	1993 - 1998
Priscilla R. Owen	1995 - 2005
Deborah Hankinson	1999 - 2002	Appointed 1997
Harriet O'Neill	1999 - 2010
Eva Guzman	2011 - Present	Appointed 2009
Debra Lehrmann	2011 - Present	Appointed 2010

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has had higher levels of women's representation both historically and currently than the Supreme Court of Texas. Historically, eight women have been elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Four women currently serve on the court, comprising almost half of the court's nine-judge membership. The current presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - Sharon Keller - is a woman. Keller is the first and only woman to serve as head of either of the state's highest courts. Keller was also the first woman to be elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after winning her first of four terms in 2000.

TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
NAME	YEARS SERVED	ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Sharon Keller	1995 - Present	Judge: 1995 - 2000 Presiding Judge: 2001 - Present
Sue Holland	1997 - 2001
Cheryl Johnson	1999 - 2016
Barbara Hervey	2001 - Present
Cathy Cochran	2003 - 2014	Appointed 2001
Elsa Alcala	2013 - 2018	Appointed 2011
Mary Lou Keel	2017 - Present
Michelle Slaughter	2019 - Present