Women in the United States Senate
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There have been 35 women in the United States Senate since the establishment of that body in 1789, meaning that out of the 1,895 Americans [1] who have served in the United States Senate since that time, 1.85 percent of all Senators have been female.
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[edit] History
Throughout most of the Senate's history, the body was almost entirely male. Perhaps in keeping with the notion of the Senate as a more 'elite' body than the House of Representatives, few women ran for the Senate and even fewer were elected until several decades ago.
The first woman in the Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton who served for 1 day in 1922.
No women served between 1922 to 1931, 1945 to 1947, and 1973 to 1978. However, since 1978, there has always been at least one woman in the Senate.
There were still few women in the Senate far into the 20th century, long after women began to make up a significant portion of the membership of the House. As late as 1992, in fact, only two women (Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) were serving in the Senate.
This began to change with the election of the 103rd Congress in 1992, which commentators dubbed the "Year of the Woman." Five women were elected to the Senate to join the two already there, significantly diminishing the popular perception of the Senate as an exclusive "boys' club." The taboo having been broken, many more women in both the Democratic and Republican parties began to run for the Senate in subsequent years, and several have been elected since then.
22 female senators have been Democrats while 13 have been Republicans. Of the 16 female senators currently serving, 11 are Democrats and 5 are Republicans.
[edit] Currently
As of the 2006 elections, there are 16 women (an all-time high) serving in the 100-person body, including freshmen Senators Claire McCaskill and Amy Klobuchar. The Senatorial representation of three states (California, Washington and Maine) is entirely female. 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. Six of the women currently serving as Senators have also been elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives—a distinction once held by only Margaret Chase Smith—Mikulski, Snowe, Boxer, Lincoln, Stabenow, and Cantwell.
[edit] Election, selection and family
Prior to 2001, numerically speaking, the most common way for a woman to ascend to the U.S. Senate was to have been appointed there following the death or resignation of a husband or father who previously held the seat. However, with the election of three women in 2001, the balance shifted: More women have now entered service as a U.S. Senator by winning their seats outright than by being appointed to the body[citation needed].
Recent examples of selection include Jean Carnahan and Lisa Murkowski. In 2000, Jean Carnahan (D-MO) was appointed to fill the Senate seat won by her dead husband, Mel Carnahan. Carnahan—even though dead—defeated the incumbent Senator, John Ashcroft. Carnahan's widow, in the tradition of the Senate, was named to fill his seat by the Missouri Governor, Roger Wilson. However, in 2002, she did not win reelection. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), however, was appointed by her father Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski to serve out the remainder of his term in the Senate. Murkowski narrowly defeated her opponent in her reelection bid in 2004.
Two current members of the Senate bring with them a combination of name recognition resulting from the political careers of their famous husbands and their own substantial experience in public affairs. The first, Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), is wife to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and served as Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan and as Secretary of Labor under President George H. W. Bush, and later launched a presidential campaign in 2000, polling ahead of all contenders, except Texas Governor George W. Bush, prior to her withdrawal. The other, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is a former First Lady of the United States, former First Lady of Arkansas, and the former Chair of the National Legal Services Corporation and the Children's Defense Fund. She is also currently running for president, the front-runner in most polls.
Former female Senators with very famous political family names include Muriel Humphrey (D-MN), the widow of former Senator and U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey. She was appointed to fill his seat until a special election was held, she did not run in the election for the seat.
Another famous name, or names, is Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker. Better known by her married name from her first marriage (Kassebaum), Baker is wife now to former Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), whom she married after retiring from the Senate. She is the daughter of former Kansas governor (and presidential candidate) Alf Landon. Kassebaum Baker served the Senate with the distinction of being the first female Senator to be elected to the Senate with no previous Congressional experience (and having not succeeded a dead husband in his seat). Her three terms in the Senate mark her time there as the third-longest tenure (after Margaret Chase Smith and Barbara Mikulski) for a woman in the Senate.
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) arrived in the Senate in 1995, having previously served in the House of Representatives and both houses of the Maine state legislature. She and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan are the only women (it is rare even for male politicians) to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of the Federal Legislature.
Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) holds several distinctions for women in the U.S. Congress: She served the Senate (to date) longer than any woman has (24 years); she was the first woman ever elected to both the U.S. House and Senate (she was first elected to the House in 1940 after the unexpected death of her husband, who himself was a member of the House of Representatives, and served there for eight years before winning the Senate seat by a landslide); she was the first woman to hold a Senate Leadership position; and she also won her 1960 race for Senate in the nation's first ever race pitting two women against each other for a Senate seat.
In 2000, Stabenow (D-MI) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) became the first women to defeat an incumbent senator, unseating Senators Spencer Abraham and Slade Gorton respectively. In 2006, Claire McCaskill (D-MO) became the third by defeating Jim Talent.
[edit] First concurrent service
The first female U.S. Senators from a single state to serve concurrently were Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both elected in 1992, with Feinstein taking office that same year (as the result of a special election) and Boxer taking office in 1993.
[edit] Statistics by state
Twenty-two states have been represented by female Senators. No state has been represented by female Senators from more than one party.
- Louisiana - 3
- Maine - 3
- Alabama - 2
- Arkansas - 2
- California - 2
- Kansas - 2
- Minnesota - 2
- Missouri - 2
- Nebraska - 2
- South Dakota - 2
- Washington - 2
- Alaska - 1
- Florida - 1
- Georgia - 1
- Illinois - 1
- Maryland - 1
- Michigan - 1
- New York - 1
- North Carolina - 1
- North Dakota - 1
- Oregon - 1
- Texas - 1
[edit] List of female U.S. Senators
[edit] Timeline of female U.S. Senators (1922-present)
