By Casey King
After Tuesday’s vote, there will now be 100 women voting in Congress for the first time in history. Alma Adams, North Carolina’s Representative, will make the 100th woman in Congress. This number could increase, but women would still represent just fewer than 20% of the U.S Congress. According to the Washington Post, Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics, says “This is still very slow growth… if the goal is political parity for women — for women to be represented in Congress in proportion to their population — we’re still not close.”
On Election Day there were 160 women candidates for the House, and 81 candidates that have won so far. The wins for republicans are leaving some to say that this is bad news for women and women’s issues. However, this depends on how you define what is bad for women. If you see some republican ideas as bad for women, then yes this may be a tough break for them. On the side of this argument are women who are tired of being seen as a one-issue voter or that being a woman makes you in favor of Democrats. The focus on abortion as the leading issue for women voters has many upset. According to Slate.com, one Colorado resident who voted against Democratic Senator Mark Udall says that she was tired of his ad’s message. She frustratingly stated, “As a woman, all I care about is my private parts?” Another women stated about Udall, that he is “pandering on the choice issue, trying to scare women”. Other women are also seeing this to be an angle that other candidates are starting to exploit for a woman’s vote. Even though choice issues are important, they are not the only issues female voters find important.
The rather small gains for women are unfavorable, and show that more women need to be encouraged to run in elections and to take part in government. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there were no clear wins for women at all. The first Black woman to be elected into Congress, Mia Love of Utah, is a historical event. Republican Elise Stefanik of New York’s 21st district is now the youngest woman to be elected into Congress.
We still have much work that can be done to gain leadership roles in government for women, but we should not disregard the small gains we do make. To get more involved with women leadership in politics and to get up-to-date news you can visit sites like the Women Impacting Public Policy’s website www.WIPP.org. As well as the League of Women Voters’ website www.lwv.org, both are great organizations that can inform voters on how they can change the lack of women in government.