Tuesday\u2019s election was historic for women.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 It was also a night of many \u201cfirsts\u201d for women as well.<\/p>\n
For the first time in history, women will hold 20 seats in the Senate<\/a>, a new record. \u00a0Since 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.\u00a0 After Tuesday night\u2019s election, five additional women will be added to the U.S. Senate\u2019s select club.<\/p>\n Democrat Elizabeth Warren beat out incumbent Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to become that state\u2019s first female senator.\u00a0 Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) made history twice, as the nation\u2019s first openly gay senator and as the first Wisconsin woman elected to the Senate.\u00a0 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\u2019s (D) seat.\u00a0 In addition, Heidi Heitkamp (D) upset Rick Berg in North Dakota for that state\u2019s open Senate seat.<\/p>\n Additionally, Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) cruised to victory over Republican Todd Akin after Akin\u2019s words about \u201clegitimate rape\u201d came back to haunt him.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Records were also broken for the number of female candidates running for Senate this year.\u00a0 Nearly half of the thirty-three Senate races offered a female candidate, and two Senate races (Hawaii and New York) had women facing women.<\/p>\n The Senate isn\u2019t the only place where women made gains, however.\u00a0 The House of Representatives will hold a record number of women in the coming term.\u00a0 Among those women is Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), a Thai American who becomes the first disabled woman elected.\u00a0 Duckworth lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq.\u00a0 And Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) becomes the first Hindu to be elected to Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cNot since the so-called \u2018Year of the Woman\u2019 in 1992 have we seen such a leap in the number of women stepping forward to contend for Congressional seats,\u201d said Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers Director Debbie Walsh.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 Joining New Hampshire\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Completing the all-female delegation is Democrat Maggie Hassan, who beat out her rival, Tea Party favorite Ovide Lamontagne, for the governor\u2019s office to become the country\u2019s only female Democratic governor.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 But women didn\u2019t just vote on \u201cwomen\u2019s issues,\u201d they voted their pocketbooks.<\/p>\n