COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina's lone female senator said Tuesday she will not seek re-election next year.

Sen. Linda Short said her designation as the only woman in the 46-member Senate made the decision difficult.

"It's important to have both voices heard," she said. "Women have a different way of working ... of looking at all the options." They also tend to focus on "kitchen-table issues" such as child care and health care, she said.

Her intentions were first reported in The Union Daily Times on Tuesday.

The 59-year-old Democrat from Chester served for 10 years on the school board there before voters elected her to the Senate in 1992. At the time, she was one of three women in the Senate.

South Carolina already ranks last nationwide in female representation, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Less than 9 percent of the General Assembly's 170 lawmakers are women - there are 14 females in the House. That compares to top-ranked Vermont, where more than 37 percent of legislators this year are female.

South Carolina is the only state in the nation with one female senator.

Short hopes women seek her seat, and state Rep. Catherine Ceips has expressed interest in a seat vacated earlier this month by Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, who resigned to lead the state Insurance Department.

An election will be held for Richardson's seat in June.