Thursday, November 04, 2010

Election News: Want Progress for Women? Move to Europe.

Women haven't lost ground in the House or Senate since 1979, but it may well happen this year. When the dust settles from the 2010 Congressional election, women will be, at best, right about where we were before the election began or, at worst, we will have lost ground.

Before the election there were 17 women in the Senate. When the new Congress convenes in January, there will be 15 to 17 women in the Senate. Before the election, there were 73 Congresswomen in the House. Come January, there will be 70 to 74 women in the House. In the best case scenario, we will end up with the status quo of 17 women in the Senate and a total gain of one woman in the House!

Until the two good-old-boy parties commit to ensuring that 50% of all candidates must be women, the best hope of seeing something approaching fair representation for women is to move to Europe.

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