WASHINGTON: A record number of women were sworn in as members of the 113th Congress as a result of elections on last November 6.
The 80 women members of the House of Representatives are joining a total of 20 female senators — a record crop for both chambers, which have been dominated by men — white men — from the time the first US Congress was seated in 1789.
The 100 women of the 113th US Congress — out of 535 members — will be thrown into a pressure cooker with huge fights already brewing over reducing federal budget deficits, imposing new controls on gun ownership and reforming badly outdated immigration laws and the tax code.
Last month, in the midst of a bitter budget and tax battle known as the “fiscal cliff,” two female senators told ABC News that if women were in charge, things would have been fixed much more easily.
“I think if we (women) were in charge of the Senate and of the administration, we would have a budget deal by now,” said Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
REUTERS
