The 116th Congress has the highest percentage of women serving in US History. It is also the most racially diverse in US History.

The current congress has a record 131 women serving, making up almost a quarter of Congress. 106 of these women serve in the House of Representatives and eight of them serve as committee chairs. According to the Pew Research Center:

“Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the 325 women elected to the House since the time of [the first woman in Congress] (including the incoming new members) have been elected since 1992, and nearly half (48%) since 1998.”

There is a similar trend in the Senate.

“29 of the 56 women who have ever served in the Senate (including the incoming new members) took office in 2000 or later.”

For a look at the trajectory of women in the political sphere leading up to the current congress, see this timeline.

These records testify to the significant advances women have made in electoral politics over the past few decades, but they also affirm the fact that the political playing field is still far from level.

The unequal representation of women in the political sphere stems from misogynist ideals of womanhood. Freudian ideology majorly influenced perceptions of women as the “second sex”, an inferior deviation from men. Femininity became synonymous with weak, delicate and maternal qualities. Women of color and lower-class women(working women) were masculinized. A women’s place was assumed to be the home, the private sphere. She played a supportive role to her husband who made all the major decisions. A woman entering into the public sphere through politics does not conform to these expectations which makes it even more difficult to accumulate positive public opinion and get elected. A lower-class woman or woman of color would find it even more difficult.

Because of this, the first woman of color elected to Congress entered office 50 years after the first white woman was elected. Even the record-breaking, diverse 116th Congress is overwhelmingly white.

Many women were elected into office in the wake of their deceased husbands or fathers who had held that office. This “Widow’s Succession” has dwindled since 2000, but is echoed in Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president after being First Lady.

A major spike in women’s representation in Congress occurred in 1992, coined the “Year of the Woman”. This followed the 1991 Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings in which Anita Hill accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. There were a record number of women elected and it began an era of achievement for women of color. According to the US News and World Report:

“47 of the 58 African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-Pacific-American women who have served in Congress were elected between 1992 and 2016.”

2018 has also been called the “Year of the Woman” because of the huge role women have had in politics. Paralleling 1992, these strides follow the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after hearings in which Dr. Blasey-Ford accused him of sexual harassment. The backlash has resulted in more women in Congress than ever before and more diverse Congresswomen than ever before. However, misogyny is a major actor in the ways these women are represented.