TEXAS — It took getting angry and organized to get many of her male colleagues in the Texas State House of Representatives to recognize the disadvantages women faced in Texas, said Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat from Austin representing the 49th District.

In its 86-session history, the Texas Legislature has only had 172 women elected to serve in the body, compared to more than 5,400 men. Out of 38 committees in the State House, only five were chaired by women. There has never been a female Speaker of the House in Texas.

So, Hinojosa and a group of her fellow female lawmakers joined forces to form the Women’s Equity Bloc, a caucus lobbying to get more Texas women in leadership positions in the State House.

“More and more, our constituents are sending women to represent them in the Capitol, and I think the body needs to appreciate that,” she said. “You know a lot of good things start when you get angry about something...when you start griping about something.”

In an October op-ed published in the Dallas Morning News, Hinojosa and Rep. Julie Johnson, a Democrat from Carrollton representing District 115, said the Texas Legislature “has never been a model of gender inclusion” and that must change. They pointed to the lack of leadership roles held by women in the House committees, and, indeed, the lack of equal representation on important committees even as the number of women in the State House has grown, albeit slowly, each legislative session. 

“I think it's just important that we just keep a constant spotlight on women and opportunities for women and the roles that women can make,” said Johnson, who was first elected to the Texas House in 2019. She is also a member of the Texas Legislature's first LGBTQ caucus.

“We still have a lot of glass ceilings in our country in politics, in business, and in corporate America and just general opportunities and wage equity, housing equity, so many things,” she said. “Our main purpose is to shine a constant spotlight on these issues to make sure that our male colleagues are cognizant of the choices they make, cognizant of the impulse implications of subtle, subtle distinctions, subtle things that they do and say, and how they behave and how it affects women and women's opportunities.”

Johnson and Hinojosa’s comments came during a discussion hosted by the Texas Tribune as part of the nonprofit news organization’s weeklong virtual symposium previewing the 2021 legislative session. The symposium included 10 online discussions with lawmakers about this legislative session’s major themes, such as redistricting, managing the state budget, and the bicameral legislature’s agenda.

The Texas Legislature meets every other year on odd years. This year is the 87th legislative session.

Thursday’s virtual discussion with Hinojosa and Johnson detailed the legislative priorities of the Women’s Equity Bloc, which includes addressing affordable health care, childcare, and other issues impacting women, particularly during the COVID pandemic. The session was moderated by Emily Ramshaw, the chief executive officer and co-founder of The 19th, a nonprofit news organization focused on gender equality. 

By getting more women into leadership roles on important House committees, the members of the Women’s Equity Bloc hope to get more traction on their key issues during the upcoming 87th session of the Texas Legislature. 

Both Johnson and Hinojosa said they had approached Dade Phelan, the presumptive Speaker of the House for the upcoming session, as a caucus and were encouraged by his reception of their lobbying to get him to put more women in committee leadership roles. Phelan has already appointed a woman as his chief of staff, which Hinojosa said was “a good sign.”

Phelan, a Republican, will need to be voted in as Speaker at the start of the session, but he appears to already have bipartisan support. Republicans will hold the majority in the House again this year, with 83 seats to the Democrats’ 67 seats in the 150-seat House.  

The Texas Legislature runs every other year on odd years. This year’s session begins on Jan. 12 and is constitutionally mandated to end 140 days later on May 31. The bicameral body may vote to hold additional special sessions on specific topics.

During this year’s session, COVID-related issues likely will dominate the lawmakers’ discussions, particularly as they work on the state’s budget. 

Women have faced distinct hurdles as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Economists estimate that more than 2 million women dropped out of the labor market in the last year as industries such as hospitality, health care, and retail took huge economic hits from COVID mitigation restrictions across the country. 

A quarter of American women have had to reduce working hours as a result of the pandemic, as many women were forced to stay home when their children’s schools and childcare facilities were closed or went virtual. Hundreds of thousands of other women were laid off as businesses closed or the women could not balance childcare demands and work.

Some academics have referred to the current recession as the “she-cession” because of the adverse effects it has had on women. It differs from the economic recession that began in late 2007 when jobs in construction and finance meant huge job losses for men. 

For single mothers and primary breadwinners, the economic effect of wage loss trickled down into the family, making women’s absence in the workforce not just a women’s problem, but a societal one. 

Women losing their jobs and subsequently employer-sponsored health care added to Texas’s already high uninsured population. As a result, the issue of Medicaid expansion will be raised again during the 87th Legislative session. 

Texas is one of 12 states that has not accepted the Medicaid expansion, which provides federal funding for states to broaden health insurance options to low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act. Opponents of Medicaid expansion argue that it has a negative impact on state budgets.

“This experience of 2020 has taught us is just how important healthcare is,” Johnson said. 

“I've been very clear that Medicaid expansion is the key to getting out of this budget crisis,” she said. “It is mandatory that we do that to save our budget and it'll help bring billions of dollars back into the Texas economy, and cover the number one most expensive item, which is healthcare in our state. 

To not do Medicaid expansion would be “fiscally irresponsible,” she added.

Focusing on improving access to affordable healthcare means also providing stimulus to an important “economic driver” in Texas, Hinojosa said. 

“If we're worried about putting our economy back where it needs to be, then we need to recognize that there are good-paying jobs in healthcare,” she said. And that we have an opportunity here to invest not only the health of Texans but in the workforce, in our economy,” Hinojosa said.