This week, the Pennsylvania House welcomed two new members: Rep. Jen Mazzocco from Allegheny County and Rep. Ana Tiburcio from Lehigh County. Every time a new member joins the state House, it is a reason to celebrate, because new members mean fresh ideas and energy. But with these two new lawmakers, we also made history.<\/p>\n
Not only are Reps. Tiburcio and Mazzocco \u201cfirsts\u201d in their own districts, but now, with their addition, the state House has reached a new milestone for female representation, with 65 women lawmakers. This is more than ever before in the legislative body\u2019s nearly 350 years.<\/p>\n
While this occasion marks a new high, women have been serving in the state House for over 100 years. In 1922, just two years after women were granted the right to vote, Pennsylvania elected eight women \u2013 dubbed the Keystone 8 \u2013 to the state House. Then, in 1938, Crystal Bird Fauset, a renowned civil rights activist and social worker, became the first African American woman elected to the Pennsylvania House \u2013 or, for that matter, to any state legislature in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Women have been contributing to Pennsylvania\u2019s legislative debate ever since.<\/p>\n
When I was first elected in 2015, there were only 41 women in the state House \u2013 out of 203 seats! Since then, we\u2019ve experienced a 50% increase. This means more women in leadership positions, serving as committee chairs and leading delegations.<\/p>\n
In 2026, Pennsylvania is full of history-making women leaders like Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, whose paths can be traced back to the achievements of some of our pioneers.<\/p>\n
Between the state House and Senate, there are 84 women serving, which makes up about 34% of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. While this is a new record for the commonwealth, Pennsylvania still lags behind other states in women\u2019s representation. In fact, in 2025, the Colorado and New Mexico legislatures became majority-woman for the first time.<\/p>\n
But why does it matter? It matters because the state legislature should reflect the people it serves.<\/p>\n
In Pennsylvania, our women lawmakers are lawyers, health care professionals, teachers, military officers, small business owners, journalists, caregivers, mothers, sisters, daughters and aunts. We each draw on our experience to champion policies that benefit everyone.<\/p>\n
Take healthcare: Since 2023, when women were elected to lead the state House and the Senate, Pennsylvania has enacted more than a half-dozen laws to improve or protect women\u2019s access to care. These measures include policies to expand access to lifesaving preventative care \u2013 like breast cancer screenings \u2013 and to collect data on Black maternal mortality to drive policy solutions. We\u2019ve also provided more resources for new and expecting moms, like coverage for doula services and information about postpartum depression. We\u2019ve prohibited pelvic exams without informed consent and have made menstrual products available in our schools.<\/p>\n
Each of these legislative victories was led by a woman.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not all. Women have also led the charge to make life more affordable for working families in the commonwealth by introducing initiatives like the Child and Dependent Care and Working Pennsylvanian tax credits.<\/p>\n
Women have fought for justice reform, including an overhaul of Pennsylvania\u2019s probation system to ensure it is grounded in fairness while reducing strain on taxpayer resources.<\/p>\n
Finally, we mobilized stakeholders statewide to end hair discrimination, and the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair bill \u2013 known as the CROWN Act \u2013 was signed into law in November 2025.<\/p>\n
All these measures earned wide bipartisan support, because public service doesn\u2019t have to be partisan.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m proud to report that the state House is projected to swear in two new women members from Adams and Blair Counties next month, setting a record. I\u2019m excited to see how all our new members will use their experience to improve Pennsylvania, because there is still a lot to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, the Pennsylvania House welcomed two new members: Rep. Jen Mazzocco from Allegheny County and Rep. Ana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,5647,50],"class_list":["post-147215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-policy","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}