How Many Women Have Been U.S. Senators?
by Great article about little facts concerning the women who have been members of the “boys club”: the U.S. Senate.
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What a great question that most Americans can not answer! Sure many people know Hillary Clinton was a New York Senator before becoming Secretary of State and most know California is represented by 2 women senators – Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. But do you know the name and state of the first woman to be a U.S. Senator?
Since women represent over 50 percent of the American population are they equally represented in the US Congress? Do you even know how many women serve as State Representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives? Interesting questions in an age where diversity is the politically correct vantage point for American culture raises issues with what you really learn about American History and Government in school these days.
Until the 1990’s women took a back seat on the political scene and history beat witness why. The ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote and changed the American political agenda forever. The wide open doors of higher education of the mid 1960’s gave women a new spring board for equality and public service. Many historians and political analysts see that the “puritan ethical” standards still shape public perceptions of gender roles, and barriers to women’s advancement such as sex discrimination, which is a factor in their limited numbers in the U.S. Senate in the new century.
Well, here are the answers to the above questions and a few other interesting bits of trivia concerning American women in politics.
1. 17 women are serving as U.S. Senators in the 111th Congress.
2. There have been only 37 women serve as U.S. Senators since 1789.
3. 13 of the 37 women to serve as U.S. Senators were appointed and not elected with 7 women being appointed to finish their deceased husband’s term of office.
4. Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first woman in the Senate, though she only served for 1 day in 1922. Ms. Felton hailed from the great state of Georgia.
5. The first woman to win an election to the Senate was Hattie Caraway in 1930.
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6. In 1992 three women served in the Senate together for the first time. They were Jocelyn Burdick of North Dakota, Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and Barbara Mikulski from Maryland.
7. 24 of the women Senators have been Democrats.
8. 13 of the women Senators have been Republicans.
9. The 111th Congress has 3 states where both Senators are women: California, Washington and Maine.
10. New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen was the first woman elected both governor and US Senator.
11. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was the first woman ever elected to both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. She also has the record for serving longer than any other woman – 24 years in the Senate. Another interesting piece of trivia about her career includes the fact in 1960 she won her political race for the Senate in the first Senatorial contest where 2 women ran against each other.
12. This past year another first for women Senators took place when Kay Hagan unseated incumbent Senator Libby Dole in North Carolina. This was first time a women candidate unseated an incumbent women Senator.
13. 23 states have elected women to the U.S. Senate.
14. Diane Feinstein is the richest woman U.S. Senator, with an estimated wealth of $103,000,000, making her the 5th richest senator in Congress presently. WOW!
15. Carol Mosley Braun was the first black woman elected to the U. S. Senate.
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How do these facts grab you?
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