Facts About Women in the House and the Senate

Here are some facts about women who have served or are currently serving in the U.S. Congress.

• 249 women have been elected or appointed to the U.S. Congress. Jeannette Rankin , Republican from Montana, was the first woman elected to serve in Congress. On November 9, 1916 , she was elected to the House of Representatives as Montana's Representative-at-Large to the 65th Congress; she served from 1917–1919.
• There are a record number of women serving in the 110th Congress: 74 in the House and 16 in the Senate.
• 214 women have served in the House of Representatives. Of these, 36 were elected to fill vacancies caused by their husbands' deaths.
• 35 women have served in the Senate. Of these, 8 were chosen to fill vacancies caused by their husbands' deaths. Seven women went from the House to the Senate.

Famous Facts and Firsts

• Margaret Chase Smith , a Republican from Maine, holds the record for the being the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. Originally elected in 1940 to fill the vacancy left by her dying husband, she was then elected to the Senate in 1948.
• Edith Nourse Rogers , a Republican from Massachusetts, holds the record for the longest service by a woman in the House of Representatives. Originally elected to fill the vacancy caused by her husband's death, she served from June 25, 1925 , until her death on September 10, 1960 .
• Representative Patsy Mink, a Democrat from Hawaii, was the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, in 1965.
• Shirley Chisholm , a Democrat from New York, became the first black woman in Congress when she was elected to the House in 1968.
• Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, was first elected in 1989 . She is the first Hispanic woman and first Cuban American to serve in Congress.
• Representative Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York, was elected in 1992 and became the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress.
• Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, became the first woman to head a political party. In Nov. 2002 she replaced Dick Gephardt of Missouri as House Minority Leader. In Jan. 2007 she became the first woman to be Speaker of the House.

See also compete list of Women in Congress.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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