[[File:United States Governor gender map.svg|thumb|As of January 2024, the map of all states based on whether their governors are male or female. {{legend|#0054D5|Male}}{{legend|#FF549A|Female}}]] As of 2024, 49 women have served as governor of a U.S. state, three as governor of an unincorporated U.S. territory, and two as mayor of the District of Columbia. In January 2024, women were serving as governor in twelve U.S. states, as mayor of the District of Columbia, and as territorial governor of Guam. Of current female state governors, eight are Democrats and four are Republicans. Republican women will take office as Governor of New Hampshire and Governor of Puerto Rico in January 2025. Madeleine Kunin is the oldest living former female governor at 91.

History

The first woman to act as governor was Carolyn B. Shelton, who served as Acting Governor of Oregon for one weekend – 9 a.m. Saturday, February 27, through 10 a.m. Monday, March 1, 1909. The outgoing governor, George Earle Chamberlain, had been elected to the U.S. Senate and had to leave for Washington, D.C., before his term was over; the incoming governor, Frank W. Benson, had become ill and could not assume office early. Chamberlain left Shelton, his secretary, in charge for the weekend. It was another three and a half years before women were allowed to vote in Oregon. The first woman acting governor to be entrusted with substantial duties while in office was Soledad Chávez de Chacón, who held the powers and duties of Governor of New Mexico for two weeks in 1924 while Governor James F. Hinkle attended the Democratic Convention in New York. Lieutenant Governor José A. Baca had died in May, so Chacón, the Secretary of State, filled the position. Chacón said that she believed that her 1924 elevation was the first time in the United States that a woman had been called on to assume the responsibilities of the governor. The first woman to assume office as governor pursuant to a special election was Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, who was elected on November 4, 1924, following the death of her husband and former governor, William B. Ross, and was sworn in on January 5, 1925. Wyoming was the first state to provide women's suffrage after New Jersey had abolished it in 1807. Miriam A. Ferguson of Texas won the general election of November 3, 1924, and was sworn in on January 20, 1925. Her husband, former governor James Edward Ferguson, had been impeached and removed from office in 1917. The first woman elected governor who was not the wife or widow of a previous state governor was Ella T. Grasso of Connecticut, elected in 1974 and sworn in on January 8, 1975. To date, no woman has ever changed parties during her gubernatorial term or has been elected as a third party member or an independent.

[The number of female governors every state has had as of January 2023.

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Demographics

As of 2024, Georgia, Arizona, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New Mexico are the only states to have elected women as governors from both major parties. Arizona was the first state where a woman followed another woman as governor (they were from different parties). Arizona has also had the most with five, and is the first state to have three women in a row serve as governor. A record 12 out of 50 state governorships are currently held by women following Sarah Huckabee Sanders's inauguration as Governor of Arkansas on January 10, 2023. As of 2024, 18 states have never had a female governor: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. 4 states (Minnesota, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Utah) have never seen a major party nominate a woman in a gubernatorial election, although one woman has served as governor of Utah and 9 consecutive lieutenant governors have been women in Minnesota, from 1983 to the present day. 3 women of color have been state governors: Susana Martinez and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico (both Hispanic) and Nikki Haley of South Carolina (Indian-American). Martinez and Haley are both Republican; Lujan Grisham is a Democrat. Additionally, all 5 women who governed an insular area have been of an ethnic minority group: Sharon Pratt and Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. (both African-American), Sila María Calderón and Wanda Vázquez Garced of Puerto Rico (both Hispanic) and Lou Leon Guerrero of Guam (Pacific Islander), all Democratic, with the exception of Vázquez Garced, who is a Republican.

Histograph

State governors

Governors-elect

Number of female governors by party

Number of female governors per state

Pregnancies

Territories and the District of Columbia

Governors-elect

Number by party

Timeline of women serving as governors

Elections with two female major party nominees

Incumbent governors are in bold.