The Progress to Date There are 17 women in the US Senate. Of the 435 representatives in the US House, 73 are women. Of the 73 female representatives in the US House, there are: 12 African American women, 3 Asian / Pacific Islander women, and 6 Latinas. Beginning in 2001, women have been included on every standing Senate committee. Since the 2000 elections, more than half the states have at least one woman in the US House. Six states have a woman governor, two less than 2008 and four less than 2007. Since 1971, the number of women in state legislatures has grown more than five-fold, from 4.5% to 24.4%. In 2010, a record 1,802 women serve in state legislatures. Currently, 18 women serve as Chief Justice in their state's highest court. (In 39 states, judges face some form of election.) 31% of the justices on the state supreme courts are women.
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Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Rutgers University | The Challenges Ahead Only 17% of the 100 US Senators and only 16.8% of the 435 representatives in the US House are women. The US ranks 69th among the countries of the world in the percentage of women in the national legislature. Four states: Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, and Vermont, have never been represented by a woman in either the US Senate or House. North Dakota has never elected a woman to either the US Senate or House, but Jocelyn Burdick was appointed to the serve in the US Senate for four months. Montana has not sent a woman to Congress since 1940s. Only one African American woman has ever been elected Senator, Carol Moseley Braun. Twelve African-American women serve in the US House today. Although people of Hispanic or Latin origin are 14.8% of the US Population, there are only 7 are Latinas in the US House. No Latina has ever been US Senator. Four women of Asian or Pacific Islander descent has been elected to the US House and two are currently serving. A total of 225 women* have served as representatives in the US House, beginning with Jeannette Rankin in 1917. If all 225 women were to serve concurrently, women would be slightly more than half of the 435 members in the House. There have been 1,915 people who have become US Senators; women senators have numbered 38. Nine new senators won in 2008; two were women. In the US, only 31 women from 23 states have ever been governor. Sixty-nine women from 52 countries have been elected or appointed to serve as prime minister, president, or chancellor. In 2010, women hold 72 of the 314 statewide elective executive positions, down from 74 in 2009, 75 in 2008, 76 in 2007, 78 in 2006 and 81 in 2005.
* Note: In addition to the 225 women who have been representatives, 4 women have been non-voting delegates to the US House. |
