We must work to elect more women to The U.S. Congress

[Tx4obama]

Until we have a higher percentage of females in The U.S. Congress GENDER does matter and the lack of a higher percentage of women Congresswomen can and will affect us all.

Currently there are ONLY 17 female Senators in the The U.S. Senate,
and ONLY 73 female Representatives in The U.S. House.


The Senate

There have been 39 women in the United States Senate since the establishment of that body in 1789. The first woman served in 1922, but women were first elected in number in 1992. As of 2011, 17 of the 100 senators are women.

SNIP

Twenty-five female senators have been Democrats while thirteen have been Republicans. Of the seventeen female senators now serving, twelve are Democrats and five are Republicans.

SNIP

Current women senators
Since January 2009, there are 17 women serving in the 100-person body (an all-time high), including freshmen senators. For four states, California, Washington, Maine, and New Hampshire, both senators are women. California's current two senators (Boxer and Feinstein) are the first two women to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the same election (in 1992) from the same state. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States_Senate

Note: ONLY Twenty-three states (out of 50) have been represented by female Senators in the history of The United States!
Blue = Democrat(s), Red = Republican(s). Purple = Both a Democrat and a Republican


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The House

Since the beginning of the 20th century, a number of women have served in the United States House of Representatives. The first woman to be elected to the United States Congress was Jeanette Rankin, a Republican from Montana elected in 1917. 229 women have served in total as of 2009. As of 2012, there are 73 women (constituting 16.6% of all Representatives) serving in the House of Representatives.

Women have been elected to the House of Representatives from (ONLY) 44 of the 50 states in the United States. The states that have not elected a woman to the house are Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Vermont. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives

[TheWraith]

1. Funny, a friend of mine just said that on Facebook today.

She's running for US Congress from Arizona. And I'm very proud of her.

[MADem]

2. I have been saying this for eons, here and elsewhere.

The representation in Congress is abysmal on many levels. Too many old white males.

My state isn't leading the charge by a long shot....yet. It's why I want to see Elizabeth Warren in the senate.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Not all female politicians are good...

Living in a country with a leader who's a woman, and where one of our Ministers is a lesbian, I had great hopes to begin. But they showed me that gender's no barrier when it comes to being ruthless and looking only to stay in power. Nothing's sickened me more than Julia Gillard and Penny Wong strongly opposing gay marriage...

[Tx4obama]

4. That can be true, BUT ...

here in the USA we currently have FIVE female Republican senators in the Senate.

The majority of the time when it is a woman's issue THREE of the five senators (Collins, Snowe, Murkowski) cross the aisle and vote with the Democrats.

I'd much rather have a FEMALE republican in office, in The Congress, than a male republican in cases where we can't get a Democrat elected.

That being said,
we have a few 'female' Republican Governors that are horrible (nutty) and I hope they will be voted out of office in their next election, but as far as in The Senate the republican women seem to be more 'sane' regarding women's issues/rights.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. The US lags far behind other parts of the world...

I'm not sure how many Senate spots there are in the US, but here there's a pretty good representation of women in government at all levels. While I mentioned two examples that I'm not happy with, one who I'm so proud of is the Queensland Premier (that'd be a state governor in US speak) Amanda Bligh. Not only has she done a fantastic job as Premier, but when the flash floods hit Toowomba last year and the floods moved to Brisbane, she showed what a real leader is made of when she kept everyone informed of what was happening and what her govt was doing to help. She was warm and genuine and was a stark contrast to our Prime Minister's awkward and forced sounding words...

I've never understood how any female Republican could not side with women on issues that concern them. I remember long ago tracking down a tiny website of Republican women who were pro-choice but they really came across as being in the minority...

[Tx4obama]

6. As the OP states, we have 100 senators in the U.S. Senate.

Your comment reminds me of the ex-Governor Manchin of West Virginia who is now a U.S. Senator.
When we had a coal-mine disaster several years ago in West Virginia Manchin, then a Governor, was up for several days and nights keeping the public informed of what was happening - and at the time I thought he was absolutely wonderful.
BUT after Senator Byrd died he was elected as a U.S. Senator from West Virginia and he has been disappointing on many of the bills he has voted on.

You can never put 100% trust in anyone to ever do the right thing every time.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I think some pollies are born with an inate sense of empathy in emergencies...

But when it boils down to it, they're politicians and very little of what most of them do is fuelled by anything other than self-interest...

<turning off the cynicism now>

[kdmorris]

8. I agree!

[TheKentuckian]

9. Better worry liberal first. More Virginia Foxx's and Michelle Bachmans are not

much better than Gohmert or Issa.

Collins and Snowe are reachable because if they aren't they'd no longer be viable in Maine.

[Irishonly]

13. I thought that when I first read the headline

I think Texas4Obama makes a good point in that when it is an issue affecting woman the current Republican senators will do the right thing. On issues affecting women and children I am not sure they are as consitstant. We need to educate the country. I can't remember where I read or which movie it was that had ______bad, _______good. It sould be Republicans BAD, Democrats GOOD with the exception of blue dogs.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Error in the Wiki text: "women were first elected in number in 1992."

No, that was the year five women were elected to the Senate. There was at least one woman elected to the Senate in her own right in the 1948, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. She served for decades and is best remembered for standing up to Joe McCarthy.

When I was learning about Congress as a grade schooler in Maine my image of what senators looked like was men AND this woman. Girls in my state knew they could go to Congress because of her.

[Tx4obama]

11. The text says: " ... first elected in number ... "

meaning more than 'one' or more than a couple - is how I'm understanding it.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. You're right. n/t

[laconicsax]

14. No, we need to elect more feminists to office

What good is it to have more women in Congress if they align with anti-choice misogynists?

I'd take a feminist man over a Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin any day of the week.

The idea that all women are equally invested in promoting women's rights is naive to say the least.

[MH1]

15. Exactly. Shift the center by replacing the most heinous and electing the most decent you can

In PA we had to settle for Senator Casey who is not the greatest on women's issues ... but to replace Santorum? That was a no brainer. It was also probably not a bad place for women's orgs to spend a little money, because Santorum was vulnerable and evil, vs. Casey having a good chance of winning and being NOT evil, even if not the greatest we could dream of. We need to win elections, not run candidates with perfect cred who can't possibly win in their market.

And I will take a pro-choice man over a looney tunes evil Bachmann any day.