when Underrepresentation is severe, bills passed to expand or restrict women’s rights are overwhelmingly shaped without women’s input.

As women disappear from West Virginia’s legislature, women’s rights slip away. Women’s share of the legislature has fallen from 17.9% to 9.7% since 2012, with a more substantial dip occurring in 2022. Bills restricting women’s rights passed at increasingly higher rates.

Gender Parity is a mandate to expand women’s rights.

As women’s representation grew in Nevada, so did the number of pro-women policies. Nevada’s legislature went from 28.6% women in 2003 to 61.9% in 2023, and the number of bills expanding women’s rights grew more than sixfold over the same period.

Male Legislators are overwhelmingly determining Women’s access to abortion, while women legislators are more likely to take the lead on expanding women’s rights to health, safety, and economic security.

Among South Carolina’s policies passed in the last two decades, Republican men made up the highest number of sponsors for restrictive abortion policy, at 124 total sponsors followed by Republican women at 14. And based on within-gender sponsorship rates in Virginia’s legislature, women legislators had higher rates than men on 29 bills expanding women’s rights, while men had higher rates than women on just 7.

Without Enough Women in Office, essential policy priorities remain largely neglected.

South Carolina’s legislative attention towards women’s issues is uneven. Reproductive and maternal health dominate the state’s women’s policy agenda, while equal pay, workplace discrimination, and domestic violence together account for less than 8% of policies passed.

Once Gender Parity is Reached, Women’s issues Begin to be addressed more consistently.

After Nevada became the first state in the country to reach gender parity in its legislature in 2019, legislation addressing women’s issues became more consistently prominent, accounting for over 2% of all passed legislation in consecutive years.