The ranks of California women in Congress are shrinking

When California lawmakers convened in Sacramento for a special session this month, they marked a milestone. For the first time ever, women held nearly half the seats in the 120-member Legislature.

But overall, the political picture is less bright — at least for those believing our elected representatives should be, well, more representative.

When the new Congress convenes next month, there will be two fewer women in California’s House delegation: just 15 of 52 members. In the Senate, after this week’s swearing-in of Adam B. Schiff, men now hold both of California’s U.S. Senate seats for the first time since the early 1990s, when the history-making duo of Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer was first elected.

That erosion in women’s power is particularly noteworthy for a state where women outnumber men among registered voters and the first female House speaker and first female vice president each got their start in the hothouse of San Francisco politics. (That said, California, which fancies itself oh-so-cutting-edge, has never elected a female governor.)

For Katie Porter, the trend is a dispiriting move in the wrong direction.

“California is a leader in equality, in protecting and promoting a woman’s right to reproductive justice, to equal pay, to parental leave,” Porter said. “So it’s surprising and disappointing that California has not been at the fore and may indeed now be sliding toward the back end of equality and representation in Washington.”

Porter, who surrendered her Orange County House seat to wage an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate, is one of four female lawmakers whose California districts will soon be represented by men.

Dave Min will replace Porter, his fellow Democrat, in January. In another Orange County contest, Republican Rep. Michelle Steel narrowly lost her seat to Democrat Derek Tran. Elsewhere in Southern California, Gil Cisneros won the congressional seat held by Grace Napolitano, a fellow Democrat who is retiring. In the Bay Area, longtime Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo will be replaced by another Democrat, Sam Liccardo.

The loss of those female lawmakers was offset by gains in two Southern California races. Laura Friedman and Luz Rivas were elected to replace fellow Democrats Schiff and Tony Cárdenas, respectively.

Still, that net decline in female representation continues an erosion in Washington that goes back several years. Nearly a half-dozen California House seats once held by women — in the Bay Area, Orange County, Santa Barbara and the Greater Los Angeles area — are now held by men.

It’s unclear exactly why that’s happened.

“Generally speaking, the bench for women is not as deep,” said Mindy Romero, who heads the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC. Also, there are often more challenges for women seeking political office, she said, given family concerns, societal norms and — even still — cultural expectations.

And although there are undoubtedly more opportunities, more mentors and greater resources than there used to be for female candidates, “the highly polarized, often uncivil and violent environment” — especially at the national level — “can feel more threatening to women,” Romero said.

Porter, who’s in the last days of her third and final term in Congress, plans to return next month to her position teaching law at UC Irvine. She’s also using $100,000 in leftover campaign cash to launch a political action committee, Woman Up, aimed at building the ranks of female lawmakers.

“When there are concerted efforts to address the lack of representation, we make progress,” said Porter, speaking from a favorite haunt, a woman-owned coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. “The state Legislature has done that work and we have seen the results.

“As we approach parity in the Legislature, we need to see that same kind of sustained work in our congressional delegation and in our statewide races and, frankly, in other parts of the country and other kinds of races where there are still fewer women’s voices being heard.”

Might she venture to break through Sacramento’s ultimate glass ceiling?

Porter has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor in 2026 and she acknowledged, “I’m thinking about it. I’m having conversations and I’m very, very committed to listening and learning from Californians.” She offered no timetable for a decision.

It’s politically appealing, to some at least, to disparage diversity and the sorting of individuals by race, gender and other characteristics.

But as USC’s Romero put it: “Representation matters.”

“Elected officials, hopefully, hear from their constituents,” she said. “But they also bring their own lived experience. Those lived experiences are supposed to represent, at least to some degree, the communities they serve.”

Not terribly long ago, when the number of female officeholders was much fewer in Washington and Sacramento, certain issues were considered “women’s issues” and received much less focus and funding than they deserved — to the detriment not just of women but also everyone else.

“You need to have a representative body talking about the needs of all the people they serve,” Romero said.

That’s government of the people, by the people and for the people at its most basic level.