Women in the United States Senate

On November 21, 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate. She was appointed to fill out a term, and although she served just one day, she made history. On Election Day this year, Kay Hagan became the first woman to defeat an incumbent woman, Elizabeth Dole, when she won election in North Carolina. During this 86 year period, women steadily achieved one milestone after another as they assumed a greater role in this most distinguished of legislative bodies. Today, there are 16 women in the Senate, the most to have ever served together at one time. (Were Hillary Clinton to remain in the Senate when the newest members are sworn in next January, there would be 17. However, she is President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of State and is likely to resign before then.)

Although Felton was the first to serve, it was Hattie Caraway who was first elected to the body. Although she had been first appointed to fill the unexpired term of her husband, she subsequently won a special election and two general elections during her tenure. She served as Senator from Arkansas for 14 years before losing a re-election bid to the legendary J. William Fulbright.

The first woman elected to the Senate without first being appointed was Gladys Pyle of South Dakota. She won a special election in 1938 to fill an unexpired term, and served for a little more than a year. She did not seek re-election.

In 1992, California’s Dianne Feinstein became the first woman to defeat an incumbent Senator: she defeated John Seymour, who had been appointed to fill an unexpired term. Since then she has been re-elected in three general elections. In 2000, Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow and Washington’s Maria Cantwell became the first women to defeat previously elected incumbent Senators.

Both Maine and Louisiana have been represented in the Senate by three women, and while two of those from Louisiana were appointed to their posts, all three women from Maine first assumed their positions after being elected. Currently, there are three states being represented by two woman: California’s Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Sue Collins, and Washington’s Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray will all be serving together when Congress reconvenes early nest year.

The majority of women who have served in the Senate belong to the Democratic Party. Including those who will first take their seats next year, there have been 24 Democrats and 13 Republicans. There are 13 Democrats and 4 Republicans who have been elected to serve together next year, although, as mentioned above, Democrat Hillary Clinton will likely resign before then.

Eight women won on Election Day in 2006, the most to win Senate seats on a single day. Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith was the longest serving female Senator: she served for 24 years before being defeated in 1972. Current Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland will likely equal or surpass that mark: she is up for election in 2010 when she will have also served for 24 years.

Many women in the Senate have served in other elective positions. Among these, both Olympia Snowe and Debbie Stabenow are the only women to have served in both houses of their respective state legislatives and both houses of the US Congress.

Surely there are a large number of other milestones worthy of mention, but I’ll close with just two more, two occasions when the same thing happened on two Election Days here in the decade of the 2000’s. In 2000 and again in 2008, two women defeated incumbents to earn seats in the Senate on the same day: in 2000, it was Maria Cantwell and Debbie Stabenow, and in 2008 it was New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen and Kay Hagan. As women gain more and more seats, such occurrences will soon become commonplace.