Essential Estrogen

The opening bell has sounded and, by all accounts, 2007 will be quite a year for women in politics. Currently, 87 women serve in the U.S. Congress -- 16 in the Senate and 71 in the House. In addition, for the first time in history a woman, Nancy Pelosi, has been named Speaker of the House.

A further inspection, however, shows the glass to be more empty than full -- although it is less empty than it ever has been. Women comprise just over 16% of the U.S. Congress. If we look back through the years at the U.S. Congress, there have been a total of 11,744 people elected to office. Of that, only 223 of those elected have been women. (Iowa has never sent a woman to federal office.)

In looking at the state legislatures around the nation, women hold roughly 24% of the seats available. When looking only at women of color, females comprise roughly 5% of the available state seats.

Here in Iowa, nearly 23% of our state legislators are women. Unfortunately, that figure is rather misleading since the vast majority of women legislators serve in the Iowa House (28% - 28 out of 100 available seats). On the other side of the capital, women make up only 12% of the Iowa Senate (6 out of 50 available seats).

As the good folks over at Vote. Run. Lead. are quick to remind us, "This country has been around for 228 years, but women have only had the right to vote for 84." Yes, we've come a long way, but there's much more road for us to travel. Let's get to it.