“Pennsylvania is a solidly D-range state,” said Courtney Lamendola, the director of research at
RepresentWomen, which publishes an annual gender parity index. Before 2019, Pennsylvania regularly ranked 49th in gender parity nationwide, repeatedly receiving an F.
To be fair, lots of other states also rate poorly. Along with Pennsylvania, three other swing states — Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin — have never elected a woman to be governor. (Neither has California, where Vice President Kamala Harris served as attorney general and senator before becoming vice president). Women have served as governor in 32 states, according to the
cqCenter for American Women and Politics at Rutgers.
In recent years, Pennsylvania has done some catching up: Today, five out of 17 state seats in the U.S. House are held by women, as are roughly 32% of seats in the General Assembly, where Joanna McClinton was
elected last year as the state’s first female speaker of the House and Kim Ward is the
first female Senate president pro tempore.
Debra Todd is currently serving as the first female leader of the state Supreme Court. Cherelle L. Parker is the first female mayor in Philadelphia’s
342-year history.
Of five statewide elected executive positions, two are currently held by women: Stacy Garrity is state treasurer and Michelle Henry is state attorney general.
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