O n the bottom floor of the state Capitol in Santa Fe — beneath the public galleries and art displays — the walls are lined with portraits of former legislators.

Overwhelmingly, those lawmakers were men.

The first woman to join their ranks was Bertha Paxton, a Doña Ana County Democrat elected in 1923.

“I just cannot imagine what she went through as the only woman in the House in 1923,” said state Sen. Reena Szczepanski, a Santa Fe Democrat in her second term and the House majority leader.

Things have changed in the century since Paxton’s election. Women now occupy 55% of the seats in the Legislature, outpacing the national average by more than 20 percentage points, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics. New Mexico is second only to Nevada in its percentage

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