It’s a small club with exclusive membership — even smaller than the boys club that makes up the United States Congress. The Women of the Senate ended up in this exclusive club that they were never meant to join, that men never intended for them to join. But here we are, in 2017, with 21 female Senators. A record high for the number of women serving in this chamber.
Only fifty women have ever served in the United States Senate — 33 Democrats and 17 Republicans. This seems like such a large number… until you realize there have been almost 2,000 individuals who have served in the United States since 1787. Less than 3% of all Senators have been women. CRAZY.
Although they are few, they are mighty — and they champion bipartisanship, friendship, and supporting one another over party divides. Women Senators want to get shit done. They come to Congress with the intent to make the country a better place. They want to put aside the petty drama that plays out on CSPAN and save some lives. Instead, they are saddled with the baggage of years of a male-dominated chamber — the ultimate pissing contest between men who want to follow their party platforms to the letter.
But it took almost 200 years for women to be independently elected to the highest chamber of the United States Congress. Elected in 1978, Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) was the first woman elected to the Senate without her husband having previously held a Senate seat. Then in 1987, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was elected to the high office — and she was the first woman elected in her own right whose husband nor father served in government before her. Mikulski became the longest serving female Senator, ending her tenure at the end of the 114th Congress in 2017.
In addition to being the longest serving woman Senator, Mikulski was known as the Dean of Senate Women. She was the gatekeeper, the champion, the teacher, and the mentor. She was ambitious, a seat on the Appropriations Committee her prize. She shocked male Senators by treating them as her equal, and ultimately gaining respect from them.
But she did something else — she waited for other women to be elected to the Senate and created a space that women could occupy in the Senate chambers. Senator Barbara Boxer once described Mikulski as “never [being] satisfied just making history herself — she wanted to blaze a trail wide enough for all of us to follow. As she said: ‘Some women stare out the window waiting for Prince Charming. I stare out the window waiting for more women senators!’”And she blazed a wide trail. Once the women were there, she helped them, regardless of political affiliation. She held crash courses in Senate procedure. She provided lessons on setting up your office and how to get on committees. She handed out a guidebook called “Getting Started in the Senate” that she wrote herself.
And she started the tradition of holding quarterly dinners for all the women in the Senate. These dinners are a way to build bridges across the aisle, allow the women to form bonds and friendships that are stronger than partisan politics. There are four simple rules to the dinners: no staff, no memos, no leaks and no men. Since the start of these dinners in the 1990s, the women have maintained their civility pact — think, do you ever seen the women Senators going after one another? No. You don’t. But within their self-created safe zone, they have the freedom to talk about their families and the struggles of being a woman on Capitol Hill. They discuss issues they can work together on, give life advice, and and champion each others’ triumphs. It’s women helping women, raising them up, and aiming to succeed.
Just because there are more women in the Senate today does not mean they aren’t acutely aware of their outsider status or the structural sexism built within the Congressional chamber. Until 2008, the Senate pool was considered “men only” because some of the male Senators liked to swim, you guessed it, naked. They weren’t going to let any woman into the pool because it would change their routine, change their norm. Senator Chuck Schumer had to fight for this policy change. Until 2013, the closest women’s restroom to the Senate chamber only had two stalls — at the end of that year, two more stalls were added, bringing the grand total of women’s toilets near the Senate floor to four.
But that doesn’t mean things aren’t changing, albeit slowly. The women in the Senate are a group of badass women who are tirelessly working to improve America through cooperation and smart politics. Women “are living, breathing history climbing the stairs — and sending a signal.” The signal is to all of the girls and young women out there who now see themselves represented in government. The signal is that you can do anything you set your mind to — including running for a seat in the United States Senate.
In addition to the aforementioned cracks in the ceiling, the women Senators have done many other badass things — and some of my favorites are below.
- Claire McCaskill once put one million dollars of her own campaign funds into Todd Aiken’s campaign (yes, the Todd Aiken, as in the “legitimate rape” Todd Aiken) so he would win the nomination… just because she wanted to beat him in the general election.
- Senator Susan Collins stepped up during the infamous government shutdown of 2013 to right the ship. She took the Senate floor and suggested they find a solution — she didn’t bring partisan politics into it, she just wanted to find a solution. Senators Mikulski, Murkowski, Ayotte, and other women senators amplified her message. With Collins leadership, they brokered the agreement that would bring the government back to life.
- Senator Dianne Feinstein fought against the leader of her party — Barack Obama — and publicly released a once classified report on post-9/11 enhanced interrogation tactics by the United States.
- Lisa Murkowski is a badass for more than just her participation in the ice bucket challenge. She’s the first senator in over 50 years to win her seat via write-in campaign. She was primaried by a Tea Party candidate and decided that wasn’t the end. This woman taught the state of Alaska how to spell MURKOWSKI without error. That’s pretty fucking badass.
- After snow storm Jonas, women Senators were the only ones who showed up to work.
- The women also play on a Congressional softball league — like the men — but the women of the United States Congress play on the same team and compete against the press. Softball brings the women together on the same team.
- Debbie Stabenow basically used a “your mom” joke to make a jab at a male senator who said his health insurance plan should not cover contraception.
- Tammy Duckworth was a Black Hawk pilot, lost both of her legs when her helicopter was hit by a grenade, and has since run the Chicago marathon.
The women of the United States Senate — past and present — are the head bitches in charge, the definition of badass, and fantastic legislators. We should elevate their voices, challenge them, and remind young women that they, too, can kick ass on the Senate floor. So, in the words of the great Senator Barbara Mikulski — square your shoulders, put your lipstick on, and fight the revolution.
TNP-TEMP 