Women of the West are making political history—and have been for 130 years

Even before women had the right to vote, they were winning elections in the West. Now they're breaking barriers in three states with majority women-led legislatures.

By Jessica Kutz, for The 19th

The stereotypical story of the American West conjures images of unforgiving terrain, rugged masculinity and a cowboy and ranching culture. But despite these Western tropes it also has a surprising history of offering women a way into political life long before it became the norm.

Every western state except for New Mexico gave women—though typically only White women—the right to vote before the 19th Amendment, which enfranchised women in 1920. Still some women were left out. Native American women, for example, could not vote until 1948. As with Black women in the American South, laws like literacy tests and poll taxes made it difficult for them to cast ballots.

But even before they were granted suffrage, women were making political history as elected officials. Colorado became the first state to elect women to a state legislature in 1894, while Utah elected the first woman state senator in 1896. Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916, and Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first woman to serve as governor in 1925.  

“A lot of the western states just really led the way,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director for the Center for American Women and Politics. “That sense of new frontiers, it really spills out into women's representation.”

So it should come as no surprise that the West also has broken records this election, with New Mexico and Colorado joining Nevada to become the only three states in the country where women make up the majority in state legislatures.

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