The positions political women hold in today’s California are still scant, but growing

Assemblymember Marie Waldron

AD - No. 75 (R)

Only 26 of the California Legislature’s 120 members are women – nine Senators and 17 Assemblymembers. Women serve at all levels of leadership, including my position as Minority Floor Leader and Senator Patricia Bates, the current Senate Minority Leader.

Surprisingly, no woman was elected to the state Senate until 1976, and none were elected to the Assembly until 1918, having received the right to vote in 1911. When I was elected in 2012, I was the 138th woman elected to the Legislature.

While men hold 1,735 city council slots in California’s 482 cit...