As of January 18, 2023, there are 22 women currently serving (excluding acting capacity) as lieutenant governors in the United States. Overall, 118 women have served (including acting capacity). Women have been elected lieutenant governor from 40 of the 50 states. The states that have the position of lieutenant governor and have not yet elected a woman are

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. The states that do not have the position of lieutenant governor are

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. The holders of the first in line to the governorship there, either the secretary of state or senate president, are listed here separately. 14 female lieutenant governors have become governors of their respective states and 6 female secretaries of state have become governors of their respective states.

Rosemarie Myrdal Rosemarie Myrdal (born May 20, 1929) is a North Dakota Republican Party politician who served as the second female, and 35th Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota from 1993 to 2001 under Governor of North Dakota Ed Schafer in 1992. She also served ...

is the oldest living former female Lieutenant Governor at the age of 93. __TOC__

History

The first woman to become lieutenant governor was

Matilda Dodge Wilson Matilda Dodge Wilson (née Rausch; October 19, 1883 – September 19, 1967), was born Matilda Rausch in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada. Ranked as one of the wealthiest women in the world, Dodge-Wilson was the widow of John Francis Dodge, who co-foun ...

(R), who was appointed lieutenant governor of Michigan in 1940 by

Luren Dickinson Luren Dudley Dickinson (April 15, 1859 – April 22, 1943) was an American politician. He served as the 37th governor of Michigan from 1939 to 1941. He holds the record of the oldest person to ever serve as Michigan governor, beginning at the ag ...

. In 1978,

Jean King Jean Sadako King, (née McKillop born December 6, 1925 - November 24, 2013) was the seventh lieutenant governor of Hawaii, the state's first woman to be elected as such, from 1978 to 1982 in the administration of Governor George Ariyoshi. Fa ...

(D) was elected as the first female

Asian-American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

lieutenant governor, when she was elected

lieutenant governor of Hawaii The lieutenant governor of Hawaii ( haw, Hope kiaʻāina o Hawaiʻi) is the assistant chief executive of the U.S. state of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Article V, Sections 2 though 6 of the Constitution of H ...

. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Jennette Bradley Jennette B. Bradley (born October 2, 1952) is an American politician of the Republican party and served as the 62nd lieutenant governor of Ohio from 2003 to 2005 and Ohio State Treasurer from 2005 to 2007. Bradley was the first African American ...

(R) was elected as the first female

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

lieutenant governor, when she was elected

lieutenant governor of Ohio The position of lieutenant governor of Ohio was established in 1852. The lieutenant governor becomes governor if the governor resigns, dies in office or is removed by impeachment. Before 1852, the president of the Ohio State Senate would serve as ...

. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Jennifer Carroll Jennifer Sandra Carroll (née Johnson, August 27, 1959) is a Trinidadian–American Republican politician and retired naval officer who served as the 18th lieutenant governor of Florida from January 4, 2011 to March 12, 2013. Carroll is the fir ...

(R) was elected as the first female military veteran lieutenant governor, when she was elected

lieutenant governor of Florida The lieutenant governor of Florida is a statewide elected office in the government of the U.S. state of Florida. According to the Florida Constitution, the lieutenant governor is elected to a four-year term congruent with that of the governor of ...

. In 2014,

Evelyn Sanguinetti Evelyn Sanguinetti (née Pacino; born November 12, 1970) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th lieutenant governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. She previously served on the Wheaton City Council. Sanguinetti announced her ...

(R) was elected as the first female

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States ...

lieutenant governor, when she was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois. Kentucky was the first state to hold a transfer of power from one female lieutenant governor to another, when

Martha Layne Collins Martha Layne Collins (née Hall; born December 7, 1936) is an American former businesswoman and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky; she was elected as the state's 56th governor from 1983 to 1987, the first woman to hold the office and ...

was elected to succeed

Thelma Stovall Thelma Loyace Stovall (nee Hawkins; April 1, 1919 – February 4, 1994) was a pioneering American politician in the state of Kentucky. In 1949 she won election as state representative for Louisville, and served three consecutive terms. Over the n ...

in 1979. Minnesota has had the most female lieutenant governors or other deputy leaders of any state in the Union, with nine consecutive female lieutenant governors since 1983. However, no female politician has been nominated for governor by any major statewide party in any of Minnesota's gubernatorial elections. No state ever had both a female governor and permanent female lieutenant governor at the same time until Arkansas and Massachusetts achieved this feat as a result of the 2022 gubernatorial elections. In New York,

Andrea Stewart-Cousins Andrea Alice Stewart-Cousins (née Stewart; born September 2, 1950) is an American politician and educator from Yonkers, New York. A member of the Democratic Party, Stewart-Cousins has represented District 35 in the New York State Senate since ...

became acting Lieutenant Governor on

Kathy Hochul Kathleen Hochul ( ; née Courtney; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of New York since August 24, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she is New York's first female governor, as well as the first ...

's succeeding Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York during his third term on August 24, 2021. From 1997 to 2009, Arizona had two female governors and two concurrently serving female secretaries of state. To date, in states without a lieutenant governor, no woman has ever changed parties during her term as a secretary of state or a state senate president, or been elected as a

third party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a V ...

member or an independent.

List of female lieutenant governors

*''Italics'' denotes

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...

lieutenant governor

List of female secretaries of state

Certain states do not have a lieutenant governor; instead they have a Secretary of State next in line for succession of governor. *''Italics'' denotes

Secretary of State

List of female Senate presidents

Two states —

and

— do not have a Lieutenant Governor, and do not have the Secretary of State as first in the line of succession to the Governor. In these two states, the President of the State Senate is first in line to succeed the Governor. *''Italics'' denotes

Senate President

List of female federal district council chairs

In the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia is first in line of succession in the event of a vacancy in the office of mayor of the District of Columbia.

Notes

References

{{Women in U.S. Government

Lieutenant governors A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...