By Zamone Perez
Virginia News Connection
Virginia now ranks 15th among states for female representation in government following last year’s general election, according to a new report from the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics.
Along with electing Abigail Spanberger as the first woman to lead the Commonwealth, Virginians sent nine more women to Richmond. That brings the total number of women serving in the state legislature in the state to 57.
Debbie Walsh, director of the center, said the 2025 election mirrors the 2017 election. The results of that election gave momentum to the 2018 midterms, when the largest freshman class of women in history was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
“After Donald Trump was elected, we saw a big mobilization of women running for office in Virginia,” said Walsh. “We saw women who even ran as challengers to incumbents, who unseated incumbents at a very high rate.”
Spanberger also follows that trend, winning a Republican-leaning district based in the Richmond suburbs and other surrounding rural areas.
Walsh claimed that Democrats tend to place a greater focus on recruiting women to run for office. She also pointed out that Republicans tend to be more conservative about the roles of women, which doesn’t encourage women to run for elected positions.
She explained that there are barriers that often stand in the way of women running for office, but they’re starting to break down.
“Women tend to run for office when they’re a little bit older than men, because they are working full-time outside of the home,” said Walsh. “They have children. They’re the primary caregivers for their families, whether it’s kids or older parents. And so they tend to wait a little bit, and that kind of shortens the trajectory for their political careers.”
Nationally, Democrats make up nearly two-thirds of women in state legislatures. In the Commonwealth, nearly 85% of female lawmakers are Democrats.
