The media has been abuzz with news about the number of new women entering the 116thCongress, and we should celebrate! However, that celebration should be tempered a bit. When we look at the United States Senate, we find that the number of women did not increase in the past election. Two new women were elected to the Senate, but two women were defeated, so the number of women in the Senate remains at the same.
The two women who lost their seats are First Women:
–Heidi Heitkamp, the First Woman elected to the U.S. Senate from North Dakota, lost her uphill battle as a Democrat in a Trump state.
–Claire McCaskill, the First Woman elected to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate, did not survive $39.5 million in attack ads by outside groups.
The two new women elected to the Senate are also First Women:
— Krysten Sinema, the First Woman elected from Arizona, is also the first openly bisexual member of Congress. The most exciting thing about her race was that Arizona had two women running for the seat, so a woman was assured that position even before the election.
–Jacky Rosen is the First Woman freshman member of the House of Representatives to win a seat in the Senate. She represents Nevada, one of five states that have two women Senators: California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington.
The Senate now has, as in the previous Congress, twenty-three women among its members. Women, who are a majority in the country, are a significant minority in the Senate. The math is easy: 100 Senators with 23 women equals 23% women. And, remember those five states with two women senators. That means that only 18 of the 50 states have women representing them in the Senate.
There’s one more way to look at the representation of women in the Senate. Let’s round up the number of women, not because I’m feeling generous, but because the math is easier. Let’s say one-fourth of the Senate is comprised of women. That means that one of every four Senators is a woman, and three of every four is a man. Translation: there are three times as many men as women in the U.S. Senate.
I would not be one to argue that men can only represent men and women can only represent women. There have always been men who represented women well. In fact, were it not for men, women would not have the right to vote. And women can certainly represent men. My own Senator Patty Murray is a valiant advocate for veterans, the majority of whom are men. And yet it seems that true representation of the population for this country might look a bit different than it does now. So, let’s celebrate women’s successes, but let’s keep them in perspective.
