Del. and Pa. are just 2 of 9 states with female speakers of the House

Longhurst was instrumental in helping pass Delaware’s Equal Rights Amendment. She also worked to help her party pass legislation expanding access to the voting booth and restricting sales to certain firearms.

“Every generation has showed us that being a woman is to know no bounds,” she said. “We have the suffragettes of the mid-1800s to thank for the right for women to vote. We have women like Rosa Parks to thank for her voice in the Civil Rights Movement. We have women like Jeannette Rankin and Sandra Day O’Connor to thank for being some of the first female ‘firsts’ and showing us it’s possible. But most importantly, we have all the women in this room to thank for showing those in your lives all the different ways that we can exist.”

McClinton has pushed for legislation to outlaw hair-based discrimination, implementing a statewide rape kit tracking system and universal pre-K.

The Pennsylvania speaker said she is fighting for women to have wage parity with men.

According to Census Bureau data and the National Women’s Law Center, women get paid 84 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Black women earn 69 cents and Latina women earn about 57 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

“This afternoon, one of the things we’re highlighting is the disparities that still exist in pay,” McClinton said. “How can it be that we fought so hard to be able to get into that voting booth, to be able to get into Hollywood, to be able to access all sorts of spaces in spheres of influence, and what some may say positions of power, yet still in too many situations, and offices in corporate America and in public service, we are underpaid?”

Delaware has 16 female state representatives and eight female senators. Pennsylvania has 64 female state representatives. Little said women account for about a third of politicians in 30% of state legislatures across the U.S. It was about 5% for decades until the early 1970s.

“Starting in the early ‘70s, ‘72-’73, there began a really slow but steady, gradual increase up until the early 2000s,” Little said. “Then it kind of leveled out. If you recall the 2018 election, a lot of people called it [an] election of women leaders. There were a lot more women elected to Congress and the Senate, and that trickled down to the state legislatures.”