Women in the U.S. House of Representatives
Eighty-four women (62D, 22R) currently serve in the 114th House. While the 2014 House election broke the record for the number of women serving in the House, women only increased their representation by two seats. Of the 46 open seats, women won only 11 of them.
While the numbers themselves aren’t impressive, 2014 was still an important election cycle for women. Mia Love (UT-4) became the first black female Republican in Congress and Elise Stefanik (NY-21), at 30 years old, became the youngest women to serve in the House. And in one of the most exciting races of the cycle, Republican candidate Martha McSally defeated incumbent Ron Barber (AZ-2) by a mere 167 votes. Furthermore, the 2014 House had more women of color expected to win election than any other Housel election in history. Although the projected gains of minority women was only five seats, it represents a large increase from the 24 minority women already in Congress. So while the 2014 cycle did not provide huge gains in terms of the number of women elected, diversity of female candidates increased-which is a marked improvement of progress.
While the numbers themselves aren’t impressive, 2014 was still an important election cycle for women. Mia Love (UT-4) became the first black female Republican in Congress and Elise Stefanik (NY-21), at 30 years old, became the youngest women to serve in the House. And in one of the most exciting races of the cycle, Republican candidate Martha McSally defeated incumbent Ron Barber (AZ-2) by a mere 167 votes. Furthermore, the 2014 House had more women of color expected to win election than any other Housel election in history. Although the projected gains of minority women was only five seats, it represents a large increase from the 24 minority women already in Congress. So while the 2014 cycle did not provide huge gains in terms of the number of women elected, diversity of female candidates increased-which is a marked improvement of progress.
Unless otherwise specified, our data on women in state and national government is sourced from the Center for American Women and Politics (May 2014).
Women in the U.S. House of Representatives throughout History
Jeannette Rankin, the First Congresswoman
“I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.” In 1916, Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) was the first woman to be elected into the U.S. Congress. As a Republican representative form Montana, Rankin served from 1917 to 1919, and again from 1941 to 1943. Read More...