North Carolina leads the South in the percentage of female legislators, according to an analysis recently released from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

With 25 percent of the General Assembly membership comprised of women, North Carolina has the 18th highest percentage of women serving in the Legislature in the country.

The national average is 24.5 percent. Vermont has the highest percentage at 37.8 percent, while South Carolina has the lowest, with 8.8 percent.

Lillian Exum Clement of Buncombe County was the first woman elected to the legislature in 1920, but even as late as 1971, only two legislators were women.

Now, 43 women serve in the General Assembly, up from 39 during the last session.

North Carolina women legislators are leading as well as serving. Female legislators now chair or co-chair four of the six most powerful committees in the House and two of the six most powerful committees in the Senate.

In the State House, three women are among the co-chairs of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which writes and negotiates the state’s two-year spending plan.

Additionally, six of the seven House Appropriations Subcommittees have women as co-chairs.

Women also chair or co-chair other powerful House committees, including: the Finance Committee (which determines tax policy); the Judiciary I Committee (which deals with substantive changes in the laws), and the Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee (which handles bills that affect more than 90 percent of the state’s business entities).

In the State Senate, two of the three co-chairs of the powerful Appropriations/Base Budget Committee are women. A woman also chairs the Education/Higher Education Committee, another powerful policy committee.

Women also serve as key party leaders. In both the House and Senate, women serve as half of the majority or minority whips for their political parties. Party whips count votes and line up support on issues on which the Democratic or Republican parties have taken a position.