The Congress that’s going to open up for business today is 80 percent male.
Yup, both the Senate and the House comprise just about
exactly 80 percent men and 20 percent women.
When the first congress was elected in 1788, only men were
seated. Congress remained an all-male refuge until 1916, when Sen. Jeannette
Rankin was elected to represent Montana. The Big Sky state gave women the vote
six years before the 19th Amendment in 1920 made it official for all
of the states.
So, we’ve come a long way in 100 years, but not nearly far
enough.
There’s an awfully big reservoir of talent in this country
that isn’t being tapped for elective office.
I’m quite leery of saying “anything would be better than the
feckless crew of (mostly) men we have in Washington right now,” but I’m quite
willing to suspect that there are lots of women who are willing to serve, and I
guess plenty of ‘em would be an improvement over the ding-dong politicians who
are representing their districts now.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
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