Women In 110 congress (07-08) Dems regained control of Congress for the first time in 12 years- no.of women were elected to leadership positions e,g, HOR when Nancy Pelosi was the first women speaker. House of Rules Committee had its first chair-Louise Slaughter. In the Senate- Standing Committee of Environment (Barbra Boxer). In 2013 in the Senate 6 standing Committee had women chairs- Agriculture (Debbie Stabenow). Appropriations (Barbra Mikulski), Budget (Patty Murry) etc. One problem is that women are usually unrepresented in the pool which members of Congress are drawn e.g. state legislature. In 2012 only 24% of state legislators were women (higher than before but still low). Colorando women make up 42% (largest) while Louisiana in 2013- 11% (lowest). have been underrepresented (in 1992, Dems tried to focus on this issue and declared it 'the year of the women'- this doubled in women in Congress that election). The majority of women in both houses are Dems. Following 2012 elections there were a record no.of women in both houses at the start of 113 congress; 78 in the House (58 Dems-20Reps) and 20 (16Dems-4Reps) in senate but women still make up only 18% of the House and 20% of the Senate- hardly representative doesn't look like America.. 2015: 20 women in senate (20%) and 14 democrats. 84 women in house (19%) and 62 democrats.

Age: 114th congress average age of house is 57. In senate it’s 61.

Race: much better in the house than in the senate as federal courts have allowed states to draw congressional district boundaries to produce a rep from an ethnic minority = ‘majority-minority districts’. Between 2005 and 2008 Barack Obama was the only African American senator. In 2011 there were none. 114th congress: there are 44 African-Americans (42 democrat) in the House and 2 (1 democrat) in the senate.There are 34 Hispanics in the house (23 democrats) and 4 in the senate (1 democrats). There are 13 Asians in the house (12 democrats) and 1 in the senate (a democrat)

	Created by vesara over 10 years ago

A-Level Politics- 4c- Governing the USA Slide Set on US Politics; Congress , created by vesara on 10/05/2016.