On April 4, the House approved, 414-1, a resolution (H. Con. Res. 66) to authorize the printing of a revised and updated version of Women in Congress, 1917-1990. Sponsored by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), the resolution directs that 30,700 copies of the document be printed.
When the book was originally printed, it contained the biographies of the 129 women who had served in the House and Senate since 1917, when the first woman—Jeannette Rankin (R-MT)—was elected to Congress. Since that printing in 1991, an additional 79 women have been elected to Congress, with the 107th Congress boasting a record 61 women in the House and 13 women in the Senate.
Noting that all of the women in the House cosponsored the resolution, Rep. Kaptur said, “During the first 128 years of America’s history, no woman served in either House of this Congress for nearly a century and a quarter….Since Representatives Rankin and Felton broke the congressional gender barrier, dozens of women have followed in their footsteps. We wait for the day when it will be thousands.”
