The Midterm Elections and Women

On November 4th, voters in the United States hit the polls to determine which of our congressional representatives and senators would remain on Capitol Hill. While this was not a presidential election, the results were nonetheless crucial. The stakes were high, especially for control of the Senate.

Midterm election results determine what issues and policies will make it through the electoral process, as it heavily depends on which party is a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The results this year led to a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate. 

While 100 women were elected into Congress, a milestone number, the results still raise the question of what will happen to the fate of certain women’s issues, such as reproductive rights and equal pay. Both will most likely experience a shift in policy, as the Republican party has more conservative views on both issues.

The 100 women elected into Congress

Reproductive rights for women vary from state-to-state; 42 states now prohibit abortions except when the health of the mother is in danger after a certain point in the pregnancy. According to NewRepublic, conservatives have required “ever-increasing burdens that make it costly, time-consuming, and difficult to get an abortion.” When Democrats were still the majority in the Senate, Harry Reid (previous majority leader) kept items regarding abortion off the agenda in order to prevent bans on abortion from being passed, but Mitch McConnell, who is now majority leader, has discussed wanting to bring them back on the Senate agenda. This means that nationwide abortion bans could be passed, preventing women from terminating pregnancies. 

In terms of pay equity for women, in September the Republicans in Senate killed the proposal for the Paycheck Fairness Act. This was an act that would “enhance the remedies available for victims of gender-based discrimination and require employers to show that wage differences are job-related, not sex-based, and driven by business necessity. The measure would also protect employees from retaliation for sharing salary information, which is important for deterring and challenging discriminatory compensation,” according to The New York Times. This was a more general version of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Equal pay is not a measure that Republicans in general have tended to vote on passing. 

With candidates like Wendy Davis, a pro-choice Democrat from Texas known for her eleven-hour filibuster of Senate Bill 5, losing their campaigns for higher office, the future of women’s issues in Congress is murky. 

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