The gender gap that emerged among voters during the presidential election is manifesting itself in a new way: inside Congress. The incoming Senate will have four times as many female Democrats compared with their Republican counterparts -- 16 to 4 -- and the imbalance among female House members is almost three times as big, 58 to 20.
The public portrait of the two parties diverged further yesterday when Senate Republicans elected a man to fill the only vacancy in their all-male leadership. The only woman in the House Republicans’ top leadership, conference chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, defeated a challenge by Representative Tom Price of Georgia, who was backed by Representative Paul Ryan, the vice-presidential nominee from Wisconsin.
On the Democratic side, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, announced yesterday that she would stay on for another two-year term. Pelosi served as the first and only woman speaker from 2007-2011. Senate Democrats re-elected their only female member of leadership -- Patty Murray of Washington -- as the fourth-ranking party official.
Republicans have become extraordinarily out of touch with women, particularly women who are employed outside the home,” said Jean Schroedel, a professor in Department of Politics and Policy at Claremont Graduate University.
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