These listings include the number of women in each session, the houses in which they
served, and their legislative district and party affiliation. Footnotes at the end of each
session explain resignations and special elections and are in order of election. The first
number under "Number of Women" is the number of women elected in the general
election preceding each biennium. Any numbers in parentheses below that reflect changes in
this number due to special elections.
Legislators were elected on nonpartisan ballots from 1913 until the 1974 House election
and the 1976 Senate election. However, during this time legislators campaigned and
caucused by party. The following party abbreviations are used in the listings:
DFL - Democratic Farmer Labor
FL - Farmer Labor
I - Independent or Independence
IR - Independent Republican
R - Republican
Since women became eligible for election, the number of Minnesota Senate members has
been 67. The number of Minnesota House members was 131 when women were first eligible for
election. That number rose to 135 in 1963 and decreased to 134 in 1973. Since women have
been elected to the Minnesota Legislature, House terms have been two years and Senate
terms have been four years, except for the years following redistricting. Prior to the
1973 session, the Minnesota Legislature met every other year, except for special sessions.
Since that time sessions have been held each year of the biennium.
Women in the Minnesota Legislature by
Year(s) Elected
is a chronological listing that includes the years they were elected, the houses in which
they served, and the counties they represented.