In 2024, women hold a record 151 seats in Congress. Despite major gains in the past decade, women are still significantly underrepresented in federal policymaking. By some estimates, it could take over a century at the current rate for our legislature to achieve equal representation.

Statistics conveyed by organizations like the Center for American Women in Politics and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research highlight this disparity: women comprise roughly 51 percent of the population and 53 percent of the electorate but only 28 percent of Congress. Women of color currently hold 12 percent of seats in Congress despite comprising roughly 20 percent of the country’s population.

Women are not the only constituency impacted by unequal representation—our entire policymaking process suffers.

Since 2000, Rachel’s Network has made the case that gender disparity in government not only stymies equality, it has serious implications for environmental policy as well.

 

In the US House of Representatives, women have had higher average environmental scores in every year that LCV has kept records. Women’s average annual score from 1972-2023 is 69 while men’s is 46.

Women of color have the highest combined average annual LCV score of any demographic group in the House at 82 (see race and ethnicity breakdown here).

Within each political party, the gender discrepancy persists, although it’s less pronounced and shrinking in recent years. The average scores of Democratic women surpass those of Democratic men in nearly every year since 1972 and their average is much higher: 88 vs 70. Since 2003, the scores of Republican women in the House have roughly tracked Republican men’s scores, but their overall average since 1972 is 22 compared to men’s 19.

Just as in the House of Representatives, women’s annual average LCV score in the Senate since 1972 is higher than men’s overall (68 vs 45) and within each party (D: 87 vs 71; R: 28 vs 20).

Year by year, the picture is more complicated, primarily because comparatively few women—and even less women of color—have served in the Senate. From 1973-1977, no women served at all, and until 1991, only 1 or 2 women served at any one time. To put it another way, pre-1991 averages account for the scores of 98-99 men vs 1 or 2 women. The large swings in LCV scores in earlier years are partly due to this small sample size. Meanwhile, only seven women of color have served in the Senate in its entire history. Women of color have the highest combined average annual LCV score of any demographic group in the Senate at 93.