Tuesday’s election was historic for women.
Election 2012 saw women voters turn out in record numbers, helping re-elect President Obama to a second term and sending more women to Congress than ever before. It was also a night of many “firsts” for women as well.
For the first time in history, women will hold 20 seats in the Senate, a new record. Since Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia became the first woman to become a U.S. senator in 1922, thirty-nine women have served in the U.S. Senate. After Tuesday night’s election, five additional women will be added to the U.S. Senate’s select club.
Democrat Elizabeth Warren beat out incumbent Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to become that state’s first female senator. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) made history twice, as the nation’s first openly gay senator and as the first Wisconsin woman elected to the Senate. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) became the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, and Deb Fischer (R) beat out former two-term Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey for retiring Senator Ben Nelson’s (D) seat. In addition, Heidi Heitkamp (D) upset Rick Berg in North Dakota for that state’s open Senate seat.
Additionally, Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) cruised to victory over Republican Todd Akin after Akin’s words about “legitimate rape” came back to haunt him. McCaskill became the first incumbent holding that seat to win re-election since 1988 as well as being the first Democrat to win re-election in Missouri since Tom Eagleton in 1980.
Records were also broken for the number of female candidates running for Senate this year. Nearly half of the thirty-three Senate races offered a female candidate, and two Senate races (Hawaii and New York) had women facing women.
The Senate isn’t the only place where women made gains, however. The House of Representatives will hold a record number of women in the coming term. Among those women is Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), a Thai American who becomes the first disabled woman elected. Duckworth lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq. And Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) becomes the first Hindu to be elected to Congress.
“Not since the so-called ‘Year of the Woman’ in 1992 have we seen such a leap in the number of women stepping forward to contend for Congressional seats,” said Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers Director Debbie Walsh.
One of the most significant gains for women, however, was in New Hampshire, where the state made history by becoming the first to be represented by an all-woman delegation. Joining New Hampshire’s two female Senators Kelly Ayotte (R) and Jeanne Shaheen (D) will be newcomer Ann McLane Kuster (D) and former Representative Carol Shea-Porter (D), who will represent New Hampshire in the House of Representatives. Completing the all-female delegation is Democrat Maggie Hassan, who beat out her rival, Tea Party favorite Ovide Lamontagne, for the governor’s office to become the country’s only female Democratic governor.
Women made their voices heard in 2012, sending a strong message to those politicians who sought to redefine rape or interfere with their rights, both reproductive and otherwise. But women didn’t just vote on “women’s issues,” they voted their pocketbooks.
According to Susan Carroll, Senior Scholar at the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University, the driving force for the majority of women voters was the economy. While younger women focused more on jobs, older women were more concerned about Medicare and Social Security.
Election 2012 was historic for women in politics. But for all the gains on election night, women still yearn for more—a female president. With more women in leadership positions now the idea of a woman president somehow becomes easier to envision and, after Tuesday’s election results, the Oval Office no longer seems out of reach.
Link to printed article: http://www.gcnlive.com/wp/2012/11/09/barb-adams-election-2012-historic-night-for-women/
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