There have been 39 women in the United States Senate since the establishment of that body in 1789. The first woman served in 1922, but women were first elected in number in 1992. As of 2012, 17 of the 100 senators are women. Thirteen of the women who have served were appointed; seven of those were appointed to succeed their deceased husbands. The 113th Congress will have 20 female senators, the most ever in U.S. history.
Read more about Women In The United States Senate: History, Women Senators For The 113th Congress, Election, Selection and Family, Firsts and Onlies, List of States Represented By Women, List of Female Senators
Famous quotes containing the words women in, women, united, states and/or senate:
“There is very little difference between men and women in space.”
—Helen Sharman (b. 1963)
“To enumerate the different trades by which the women in New York are endeavoringnot to livethat for many of them is as utterly unattainable a goal as the end of the rainbowbut simply to postpone as long as possible their appearance at the morgue or the cemeteryto attempt to do this would be useless.”
—Katharine Pearson Woods (18531923)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerableI mean for us lucky white menis the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Like Cato, give his little Senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause.”
—Alexander Pope (16881744)