Women could hit critical mass in Congress this year

By Nisha | October 22, 2008

According to Women’s eNews, Janes, this is your year! Women could pick up as many as 13 seats in Congress next month. Doing so would take women from currently making up 16% of Congress to potentially making up 19% — just one point shy of 20%, which political scientist Sue Thomas declared over a decade ago would be the “tipping point” for women in Congress.

“In a study of 12 state legislatures Thomas found that when women held at least 1 in 5 state legislative seats, they were more likely to sponsor and push forward women-friendly legislation such as funding for domestic violence shelters and stricter child-support laws,” reports the website.

Women are running in hotly contested Congressional races all over the country this year — Cleveland, Maine, Wyoming, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and everywhere in between! So can we look forward to seeing Congress pay more attention to the issues you ladies care about most in the next few years? You betcha! Check back with CJP often as we’ll be profiling some of the most high-profile House and Senate races over the next two weeks as we count down to Election Day.

Topics: Congress, Ladies of the House, Senate, Women in Politics

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