On Monday, Nevada's statehouse begins its legislative session by marking a major milestone. It's the first time in our nation's history that any state legislature holds a majority of women lawmakers. Just like the country, the body is slightly more than half women.
"It's been a long hard fight. I'm starting to see some of the fruits of not just my labor, but the labor of so many other people whose names I don't know," says Patricia Ann Spearman, a Democrat and a Nevada senator who was first elected in 2012.
With its overall majority, Nevada is the exception. This year, 50.8 percent of state representatives and senators, combined, are women. And it's one of only two states that has a majority women in any one chamber. The other is Colorado's lower house where there are three more women than men. A single chamber majority has only happened once before, in New Hampshire about a decade ago.
The only way to achieve gender parity is to invest in women. And Democrats are doing that — 70 percent of women state lawmakers are Democrats. While women in the Democratic party gained seats across the country in 2018, women in the Republican party lost state legislative seats.
Couple highlights: