Record number of women in new US congress

A record number of women were sworn in as members of the 113th U.S. Congress on Thursday as a result of the November 6 elections. The 80 female members of the 435-seat House of Representatives are joining a total of 20 female members in the 100-seat Senate—a record total for both chambers, which have been dominated by men from the time the first U.S. Congress was seated in 1789. Despite the record number of women in Congress, men still retain most power, with almost all of the top leadership positions and committee chairmanships held by men. The women serving in the new Congress are much more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. Of the 20 female senators—three more than in the previous Congress—17 are Democrats. In the House of Representatives, 61 female members are Democrats, up from 53 in the previous Congress, while 19 are Republican, down from 24 in the previous session. The most famous female member of Congress is Nancy Pelosi of California, the only woman to be speaker of the House of Representatives, a position she held from 2007 to 2010