Debbie Downer here reminding you champagne gives you a headache.
I am working in a larger project on women in politics here in Massachusetts. Many of the analyses are striking and counter-intuitive. But I want you to buy the book so I’ll keep most to myself for now. Unless “The View” calls.
In compiling the data for the project, I have amassed all the women who have served in the six New England legislatures, 1921-2019. I won’t spoil the details but suffice it to say the amazing resources at Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University and two excellent current and former doctoral students played vital roles.
What I want to present here are two straightforward graphs that meaningfully challenge the “breakthrough” hottake that some, not all, political observers offer in light of recent gains by women in MA’s top electoral spots.
Figure 1 provides the percentage of female legislators serving in the MA Statehouse, 1923-2019. Not so fun fact: Massachusetts was the only New England state to conclude that the 19th Amendment, ratified 
August 26, 1920, did not necessarily grant women the right to run for office. The MA legislature clarified the issue favorably for female candidates in 1921 and two successfully ran and were seated in 1923. The figure begins by plotting these women. From there, we see near stagnation for fifty years. It is not until 1975, when the material gains of second-wave women’s organizing start rolling in, that the legislative percentage just crosses 5%. Gains are significant up until 1995. Since then, the number bounces between 23.5% and the current high of 28.5%. Twenty-four years and five percentage points. Hooray?!
Despite MA owning the second highest percentage of women with a Bachelor’s degree or higher in the nation, and highest in New England, the returns on this education for electoral success have not borne the fruit research would suggest. Indeed, we are but 27th in the nation for electing women to the legislature and currently last in New England.
And even the modest stagnant gains are concentrated among white women. This is hardly new but remains deeply problematic – especially when we regularly describe the politics and policy of MA as exceptional.
Figure 2 puts this into stark, empirical contrast. The light blue line replicates the percentage of women in legislative office though this time for 1973-2017. Valid replicable data across all fifty states simply does not exist prior. The bold blue line represents the percentage of women on color in the legislature.
The pattern is unmistakable. Even in the heyday of women’s liberation in the early 1970s, and as those resources and consciousness developed, women of color (WOC) were rarely in the legislature. The nearly flat trend line for WOC never exceeds five percent. This means that the slow gains made in the Massachusetts legislature are better described as slow gains for white women and next to nothing for women of color.
Told ya I was a Debbie Downer.
Does the Massachusetts legislature’s 1920 (or 1921??) act show their reluctance to let women run for office or is it their determination to make sure they can do it?
The Mass AG ruled the 19th Amendment allowed women to vote but not necessarily to run . The 19th was ratified August 1920. MA legislature “amended the statutes to allow women to run on May 21, 1921.” I have not read the original text of the legislative action. If you find out, I’d love to know too. Thanks for reading!