You might have recently heard that the 114th Congress has sworn in a “record” amount of women. Unfortunately however, a celebration is not really in order. While this is great news, it starts to sour because of one simple fact: the number that makes it a record is 104… out of 535. Twenty out of 100 in the Senate. Eighty four out of 435 in the House of Representatives. In total women make up 19.4 percent of Congress. Compare that to 50.8–the percent of Americans who are women–and it really does not look good. But that does not mean that the women that are in Washington aren’t absolutely killing it.
First we have Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She hails from the great state of New Hampshire and has been in office since 2013, and has also previously served as an advisor to President Obama. She is a tireless crusader for women’s rights, and has helped her home state to increase the wage gap from 77 cents to 81 cents compared to a man’s dollar. While this is better than the national average, she refuses to rest and continues to fight for pay equality.
Another senator trying to make a difference is Kirsten Gillibrand, who comes from our very own New York State. She has campaigned to give sexual assault on campuses the attention it deserves. She is one of the sponsors of the Campus Accountability and Safety Act and is trying to help lower the terrifying fact that one out of five women are sexually assaulted on our nation’s campuses.
Another influential woman in Washington who is kicking ass and taking names is Eleanor Holmes Norton, the delegate for D.C. She is an advocate for equal pay and says, “Women need to get a whole lot more restless to get what they’re entitled to.” A graduate of Yale Law School, she is on her thirteenth term.
Now for a familiar name. She’s someone we all know and currently is running to be the first female president of the United States of America. Hillary Clinton– former first lady, senator, and secretary of state. For nearly 30 years she’s been a fixture in modern politics and has spoken out for women’s rights. Now she may be the first woman in the White House.
Next is another female candidate for president, Carly Fiorina. She has certainly contributed to the effort to break the glass ceiling, rising to some coveted and elite positions, both in and outside of politics. The former CEO was the first woman to lead Hewlett-Packard. She transitioned into politics in 2010, with her first race being for a position in The Senate. Even though she is considered an outsider in politics, she has successfully taken second place in the polls after the second GOP debate, and is the only women running in the GOP.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and hails from New York. She won the Women’s Leadership Award during her time at Harvard and worked in the White House before moving on to the House of Representatives.
Congresswoman Donna Edwards was the first African-American woman elected from Maryland. She was the Chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group and is actively working to close the wage gap.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Bae-der or the Notorious RBG as she is sometimes known) is a justice on the Supreme Court. In college she was she was a Panhellenic sister and went on to be one of nine women in her Harvard Law class. Later she was a chief litigator for the Women’s Rights Project. Before she herself became a Supreme Court justice, Associate Justice William Rehnquist asked Ginsburg, “You won’t settle for putting Susan B. Anthony on the new dollar, then?” Ginsburg said she considered responding, “We won’t settle for tokens.” Indeed Bae-der. Indeed.
These women and countless other work to improve the quality of life for women in America. Whether it’s closing the wage gap or protecting our civil liberties, they are paving the way and blazing the trail to greatness.