"My latest short answer: Look at the new California Senate leader. In fact, look at the entire Senate. Actually, the other legislative house, too, the Assembly. There was only one female legislator when I arrived very young and green in 1961. She was an Assembly member, Democrat Pauline Davis from mountainous Plumas County in the northeast. You can thank her persistence for highway rest stops."
"And there are more female senators than males, 21 to 19. The Assembly's getting there, too. Women hold 38 of the lower house's 80 seats. In all, 49% of all legislators are women 59 of them. A woman wasn't elected to the Senate until 1976 when conservative Democrat Rose Ann Vuich, a farm owner, won a seat from Dinuba in the San Joaquin Valley."
"The first female Senate president pro tem, Toni Atkins of San Diego, was elected leader in 2018. She's also the only person to have been chosen as both Assembly speaker and Senate pro tem. There have been three female Assembly speakers, including current L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. The first was Republican Doris Allen of Orange County in 1995, a puppet of departing Democratic Speaker Will"
California's legislative demographics changed dramatically since 1961. Then there was one woman legislator, Assembly member Pauline Davis, and no Latinos in the 120-member Legislature. Women now hold 59 of 120 seats (49%), including 21 of 40 Senate seats versus 19 men, and 38 in the Assembly. Monique Limon is the Senate's first Latina leader and its first mother to lead. The first woman elected to the Senate was Rose Ann Vuich in 1976. The first Latina senator, Hilda Solis, was elected in 1994. There are now 13 Latina senators, including three Republicans. Toni Atkins became Senate pro tem in 2018 and is the only person to have served as both Assembly speaker and Senate pro tem. Three women have been Assembly speakers, including Karen Bass.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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