How Many Women Are in the Us House of Representatives
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Ane hundred 20-seven. That'southward how many women will be in Congress this year, up from 110 in the previous Congress.
Information technology's a jump that's simultaneously so big and and so small.
On the one hand, there are xv percent more women in this Congress than there were last session. There are now a record number of women of colour in the House. There are besides a slew of firsts: Congress will get its kickoff Native American women, Muslim women and youngest female member ever.
On the other hand, this yr'due south tape-setting number of women volition bring the share of women Congress members up from 20.six per centum ... to 23.7 percentage.
Overwhelmingly, these women are in the Firm. While the number of Senate women will increment past ii, the number of House women will grow by xv compared with those elected in the concluding Congress. Hither'southward a series of charts to assistance yous sympathize exactly how large a bargain that change in the House is and what information technology might mean for how the new Congress does its job.
Almost entirely Democratic women
A defining feature of the record-setting wave of women coming into Congress is that it is nearly entirely Democratic. While there are 35 Autonomous women freshmen in the House, there volition be only one on the Republican side: Carol Miller of West Virginia.
Altogether, the number of Democratic women in the House volition increment by 25 this year, while the number of Republican women will refuse past 10.
Ii (interrelated) things happened in 2018: Voters elected a blue wave, and that bluish wave had a lot of women in information technology.
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Starting in January 2017, information technology was abundantly clear that Democratic women were furious that Donald Trump had been elected president. That helped push a tape number of Democratic women to run for function. That led to a record number of Democratic women nominees and ultimately a tape-setting freshman form of them.
Almost thirty per centum of Republican men who left their seats (either through retirement, resignation or defeat) have been replaced by Democratic women. And almost one-half of Republican women who have departed were replaced by Autonomous women.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi swears in members on Th at the Capitol, including a record number of women in the House of Representatives. Fleck Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi swears in members on Thursday at the Capitol, including a record number of women in the Firm of Representatives.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
So now, as the new Congress starts, there are only thirteen Republican women in this House, down from 23 last session.
At that place are a lot of reasons for this. In that location are relatively few Republican women in land legislatures, for example, and a lower share of women are Republicans than Democrats.
Only in that location's also a sense within the party that they may need to adopt different policies. Sometime Rep. Mia Dear, R-Utah, expounded upon the demand for more contraceptive availability as an example at a Dec panel hosted by Politico.
"I mean seriously, I am pro-life. I'm unapologetically pro-life. Why not give women the option of having their choices when it comes to health intendance before they have to choose betwixt keeping a life and ending a life?" she said. "And the fact that I've got more issues with Republican men on this is admittedly absurd to me."
Bated from that, when it comes to promoting female candidates, Republicans lack a massive outside spending machine like Democrats have in Emily'south List.
In improver, the Republicans' Firm fundraising arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, doesn't participate in primaries, as the Autonomous Congressional Campaign Committee does. Some in the GOP, like New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, believe that boosting women in primaries is essential to ultimately boost GOP women's congressional numbers.
That's why, in Dec, Stefanik said she was stepping down from her recruitment post at the NRCC — to focus on using her own leadership PAC to aid women in her political party win.
More bipartisan? Not necessarily
There'south a conventional wisdom in Washington that women are more bipartisan than men — that one time they're in Congress, they will exist more than willing to make compromise legislation.
There's anecdotal bear witness of this. Women were instrumental in ending the 2013 shutdown. Women like Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski have a reputation for being open to crossing party lines on key votes.
Information technology's a particularly seductive idea at a time when partisan rancor in Washington seems to regularly hit ever-new highs.
Simply it's not necessarily true, according to contempo research (and as NPR reported final summertime). A belatedly 2022 written report found that while women on the Colina are more sociable, in the sense that they participate more in interparty congressional events like Clandestine Santas, those lawmakers remain outset and foremost partisan when it comes to their votes, amendments and even official travel.
Across those measures, there are virtually no gaps between women and men.
Step dorsum from the data, and this decision looks pretty logical. After all, the number of women in Congress has been increasing slowly over the past couple of decades, a time when polarization has besides increased.
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That said, research has shown that women do legislate differently than men do. There is evidence that women and men introduce bills in different outcome areas — women more oftentimes in education, health, and civil rights and liberties; men more often in agronomics and energy. (That same study also found that those bills in "women's issues" areas tend to pass less often than other bills, particularly when sponsored by women.)
In add-on, women in the minority party accept been shown to continue their bills alive longer than men in the minority do.
All of which is to say that the bills on Congress' docket next year may well look different than usual. As for lawmakers' willingness to compromise on those bills? Don't count on it.
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Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/678227272/what-it-looks-like-to-have-a-record-number-of-women-in-the-house-of-representati
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