The 115th Congress had 107 women in it (House and Senate combined). The 116th Congress will have 123 women. That's a record for the number of women in Congress. And it is mainly due to Democrats, who ran a record number of women. The number of Democratic women in Congress was 78 in the 115th Congress, but grows to 104 in the 116th Congress. Meanwhile the number of Republican women dropped from 29 in the 115th Congress to only 19 in the 116th Congress.
Democrats took a big step toward becoming a more gender-inclusive party, while Republicans moved closer to being an all-male party in Congress.
But while 123 women in Congress is a move in the right direction, it's not good enough. Women make up slightly more than half the population, and should compose about half of the members of Congress.
We still have a lot of work to do to end the political patriarchy in this country.
