Built for Someone Else: How State Legislatures Exclude Mothers in Their Design

Legislative roles often demand long hours, inconsistent schedules, and frequent travel between home districts and state capitals; conditions that disproportionately affect those with caregiving responsibilities. These late-night floor sessions and irregular committee hearings are especially burdensome for women, who are more likely to be primary caregivers. Irregular and last-minute scheduling creates significant challenges for working parents, who must coordinate childcare around unpredictable work demands. The schedules of many state legislatures discourage women from running for or remaining in office, as these conditions are often incompatible with caregiving responsibilities.

The pay structures of state legislatures often pose a significant financial barrier to women and mothers running for office. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only four states are considered to have a full-time legislature and pay their legislators a livable wage: New York, Michigan, California, and Pennsylvania. In New Mexico, legislators aren’t paid a salary, instead they receive a per diem of $202 during legislative sessions. In 2025, the average annual base salary for a state legislator was $47,904. This wide range — from no minimum wage to a livable wage — is determined by each state. States also determine whether to qualify legislators as full-time, part-time, or hybrid, which impacts pay and also the number of staff a legislator can hire.

Most state legislatures do not allow remote or proxy voting, meaning that any absence for caregiving can result in missed votes, reduced influence, and potential political consequences. Before 2020, only 2 states had specific provisions allowing the legislature to meet remotely or virtually in an emergency. While some states temporarily adopted remote participation during the COVID-19 pandemic, most have since reverted to in-person-only rules, leaving little accommodation for legislators balancing caregiving duties. In 2025, only 10 states had procedures allowing legislators to participate remotely in floor proceedings in both houses, and 17 states had procedures for remote committee meetings under certain conditions. This lack of institutional flexibility penalizes legislators for fulfilling caregiving responsibilities, as shown in the case of California Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, who was denied proxy voting while on maternity leave during the pandemic, forcing her to bring her 1-month-old onto the house floor.

This rigidity is further compounded by the fact that elected officials are often not considered state employees and therefore lack access to standard benefits, such as paid family leave. Unlike state employees, legislators are frequently excluded from formal family leave policies, leaving them without guaranteed time off or job protections during pregnancy, childbirth, or adoption. This disparity is highlighted through the case of Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who gave birth while in office but was ineligible for the state’s parental leave policy because she was not classified as a state employee even though she was employed by the state. Similar challenges have prompted policy reform efforts elsewhere in the United States. In Colorado, former state legislator and current U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen helped draw attention to the lack of paid family leave protections for elected officials and later introduced legislation to codify paid family and medical leave benefits for Colorado state legislators. While reforms represent important progress, the continued exclusion of many elected officials from parental leave protections reinforces outdated norms about who belongs in leadership and contributes to the underrepresentation of women (particularly mothers) in politics.

Research shows that when more women hold legislative seats, countries are significantly more likely to adopt comprehensive maternity and childcare leave policies, highlighting the critical role of representation in driving institutional change. Without structural reforms that include elected officials in leave policies and allow for flexible participation, the current political system will continue to marginalize caregivers and limit the diversity of voices in policymaking.