HARRISBURG — Death was the surest route to the state Capitol for women in 1977, when Rep. Elinor Z. Taylor entered the House cloakroom for the first time.
Most of the eight other women in the House were widows who succeeded their husbands in office, she said.
"That was about the only way a woman got into the General Assembly," said Taylor, a Republican who started on the West Chester Borough Council.
Nearly a generation later, the halls of power are more open - but only to an extent.
As the General Assembly begins its two-year session this month, 28 women sit in the 203-member House, a record. The 50-seat Senate includes six women.
Despite the gains, Pennsylvania still ranks 44th in the nation in the proportion of women in the legislature, with 13.4 percent, according to a survey conducted by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Even though there are more women in Harrisburg than ever before, only one is in a party leadership position.
To Sen. Lisa M. Boscola, a Northampton Democrat, the political environment for women in Pennsylvania is "stagnant." The state's national ranking has hardly budged since she was elected to the House in 1994. "It's a matter of playing catch-up," Boscola said.
It is that way, too, for other historically underrepresented groups. Just 7.1 percent of Pennsylvania legislators are African American, nearly all of them from Philadelphia, even though blacks make up an estimated 9.8 percent of the state population. There is one Latino in the legislature - less than 1 percent - and there are two legislators of Asian ancestry.
It's not easy to break into the General Assembly, where the average member is a 12-year incumbent. Lawmaking is a full-time job, with annual pay of $61,908 - third behind California and New York - and generous perks. States with part-time legislatures and populist traditions tend to have more women in office, political scientists say.
"In a closed political culture like Pennsylvania, the parties exercise more control and you don't get in politics unless you're anointed," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Rutgers center. "The challenge is for women to get in a position where they are the gatekeepers."
Not only do men dominate the party organizations that dole out nominations for higher offices, but they also enjoy advantages in networking and fund-raising from the business world, female legislators say.
