Women in the United States Senate

However, the Wyoming legislature was deadlocked for weeks of voting on their senators: Republicans, Democrats, and Populists mostly backed their own candidates.

[1][2] The first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton; she represented Georgia for one day as a symbolic gesture in 1922.

Her 1960 reelection bid resulted in Chase Smith winning the nation's first-ever United States Senate election with two female major party nominees.

In 1978, Nancy Kassebaum became the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate, representing Kansas, without her husband having previously served in Congress.

She was also the first and, to date, only female member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints elected to the United States Senate.

The trend of few women in the Senate began to change in the wake of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings and the subsequent election of the 103rd United States Congress in 1992, which was dubbed the "Year of the Woman.

[10][11] In 1993, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Carol Moseley Braun wore pants onto the floor in defiance of the rule, and female support staff followed soon after, with the rule being amended later that year by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Martha Pope to allow women to wear pants on the floor so long as they also wore a jacket.

In June 1993, Kay Bailey Hutchison won a special election in Texas, and joined Kassebaum as a fellow female Republican senator.

She was replaced by Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been elected three times and was herself a candidate for president in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Upon the opening of the 112th United States Congress in 2011, New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen was joined by newly elected Republican Kelly Ayotte, making up the first Senate delegation of two women belonging to different parties.

In November 2022, Dianne Feinstein became the longest-serving female senator in history,[12] surpassing Barbara Mikulski,[13][14] having served for 30 years.

The five new women were Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Republican Deb Fischer of Nebraska.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first former female senator to win a major party's nomination for President of the United States.

McSally exited the Senate in late 2020 after losing that year's special election to Mark Kelly, a Democrat.

Also in 2018, Jacky Rosen made political history as the first female one-term outgoing U.S. representative ever elected to the Senate.

[19] In 2023, Patty Murray became the first woman to serve as president pro tempore, a role traditionally given to the most senior member of the majority party in the United States Senate.

[22] Before 2001, a plurality of women joined the U.S. Senate through appointment following the death or resignation of a husband or father who previously held the seat.

Carnahan's widow was named to fill his seat by Governor of Missouri Roger Wilson until a special election was held.

Two recent members of the Senate brought with them a combination of name recognition resulting from the political careers of their famous husbands and their own substantial experience in public affairs.

The first, former senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), was married to former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole (R-KS) and served as United States Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of Labor under President George H.W.

She too ran an unsuccessful campaign for her party's presidential nomination in 2008; she resigned in 2009 to become the secretary of state for the eventual victor of that election, Barack Obama.

In 2016, she ran a successful campaign for her party's presidential nomination, eventually losing in the general election to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Another famous name is Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), the daughter of former Kansas governor and one-time presidential candidate Alf Landon.

The number fell back to 25 on December 2 of the same year when Martha McSally's appointment ended after she lost an election to finish John McCain's unexpired term.

On January 3, 2019, Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally became the first women from the same state to start serving in the Senate on the same date.