Women Legislators 1923-2019
| Year | House | Senate | Total |
| 1923 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1927 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| 1929 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 1931 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 1933 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 1935 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 1937 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| 1939 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 1941 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 1943 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 1945 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 1947 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 1949 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 1951 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 1953 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 1955 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 1957 | 10 | 1 | 11 |
| 1959 | 11 | 1 | 12 |
| 1961 | 12 | 2 | 14 |
| 1963 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 1965 | 10 | 2 | 12 |
| 1967 | 14 | 1 | 15 |
| 1969 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| 1971 | 16 | 1 | 17 |
| 1973 | 18 | 1 | 19 |
| 1975 | 23 | 1 | 24 |
| 1977 | 28 | 2 | 30 |
| 1979 | 30 | 4 | 34 |
| 1981 | 36 | 6 | 42 |
| 1983 | 35 | 6 | 41 |
| 1985 | 35 | 9 | 44 |
| 1987 | 43 | 10 | 53 |
| 1989 | 48 | 10 | 58 |
| 1991 | 50 | 12 | 62 |
| 1993 | 48 | 11 | 59 |
| 1995 | 39 | 11 | 50 |
| 1997 | 35 | 13 | 48 |
| 1999 | 35 | 16 | 51 |
| 2001 | 41 | 15 | 56 |
| 2003 | 37 | 13 | 50 |
| 2005 | 33 | 11 | 44 |
| 2007 | 45 | 12 | 57 |
| 2009 | 47 | 8 | 55 |
| 2011 | 45 | 7 | 52 |
| 2013 | 47 | 7 | 54 |
| 2015 | 44 | 8 | 52 |
| 2017 | 54 | 10 | 64 |
From at least 1923 through the 1950’s, women constituted fewer than 10 members of the male-dominated state legislature in any session. Beginning in the 1960’s, and taking off in the 1970’s, women’s membership rose to over 60 of the 183 legislators in 1991.
In 2017 the number of women House members surged to a historic high of 36%, and led the full legislative membership of women to high of 34% . Women members of the Senate in 2017 represents 28% of the Senators.
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, approved in 1920, gave women the right to vote. In 1922, the first year in which women were eligible to vote, Dora Pinkham of Fort Kent, a Republican, was the first woman elected to the Maine House of Representatives, taking office in 1923. She was then elected in 1926, with Katherine C. Allen of Hampden, also a Republican, as the first women to serve in the Maine Senate beginning in 1927.
In 2003, Beverly Daggett of Augusta became the first woman President of the Senate; in 2005, Beth Edmonds of Freeport became the second.
Elizabeth (Libby) H. Mitchell was elected as Maine’s first Speaker of the House in 1996, and as Senate President in 2008. She became the first woman in the United States to serve as both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House at the state level.
Minnie Craig, born in Phillips, became the first woman state Speaker of the House in North Dakota in 1933.
In 2001, 11 of the 17 Democrats in the State Senate were women, the first time that women were a majority of either party in either house of the Maine legislature. In 2013, the Democrats were the majority party again, and all 7 of the women in the Senate were Democrats.
Not only is the number of women in the Legislature at a record high of 72 as the 2019 session begins, the proportion of all women members is at a record high of 48%.
Democrat Sara Gideon has been Speaker of the House during 2017-2018 and is expected to become Speaker in 2019.