She was San Francisco’s first female prosecutor. Then the first woman to hold the post of attorney general in California. Kamala Harris is also now the first woman elected to the vice-presidency of the United States. The Democratic senator – black by her father, and of Indian origin by her mother – thus enters the history of the United States.
Joe Biden’s running mate is not the only one, Tuesday, November 3, to have broken the famous “glass ceiling”. According to the CAWP (Center for American Women and Politics), the 117e The country’s Congress will have at least 135 women (103 Democrats and 32 Republicans), unprecedented.
During these elections – Americans not only elected their president but also renewed the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate – women and diversity scored points in terms of representation, it is undeniable. But on closer inspection, these gains, as significant as they are, are all in all quite low. “How do you measure success?, asks Kelly Dittmar, director of research at CAWP, in the light of these results. If we measure success against overall representation, we are far from the mark. ”
Finally, women still represent a little less than a quarter of the 535 seats in the US Congress, according to almost final results:
- To the House of Representatives, they will be at least 111 (87 Democrats, 24 Republicans), or a little more than 25% of elected officials, against 23% so far;
- The Senate will be composed of at least 24 women (16 Democrats, 8 Republicans), results which do not include Kamala Harris – the US Constitution provides, in fact, that the vice-president can decide the possible votes to 50 senators against 50. Here, the record is not broken (there are currently 26 senators), and women will now represent 24% of elected officials, against 26% so far.
Another point to qualify: who says “elected” does not necessarily mean defender of women’s rights. This is the case of Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, elected to the House of Representatives, where she will sit for the State of Georgia. The candidate, close to the QAnon conspiracy movement, defines herself as ” pro–life, pro-arms, pro-God ”. The very conservative Lauren Boebert, also elected House of Representatives for the State of Colorado, is also distinguished by her anti-abortion positions.
Black, Latin American, Native American… This year, American voters also chose new female figures representative of ethnic minorities. But, at the same time, they did not reelect some. As a result of this “turnover”, the House of Representatives will have as many elected women as in 2019, namely 44 (42 Democrats, for only 2 Republicans).
In the Senate, on the other hand, no new racialized woman was elected this year: only a third of the seats were at stake, and the mandate of the four colored senators who sat until then was not put to the vote. As Kamala Harris leaves her position as Senator for that of Vice-President, there will be only three.
Overview, not exhaustive, of the most symbolic new elected officials of this 117e Congress.
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Three elected Native Americans
Three indigenous women were elected to the House of Representatives: a record. The two Democrats Deb Haaland (member of the Pueblo Laguna tribe) and Sharice Davids (member of the Ho-Chunk tribe) have been re-appointed for a new term. The first will represent New Mexico (Southwest), and the second Kansas (Midwest). Yvette herrell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, thus becomes the third Native American woman elected to Congress (New Mexico), and the first Native Republican elected to this post.
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Three diverse women for New Mexico
In New Mexico, the Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, of Latin American origin, won his first term. This brilliant lawyer who studied at Yale and Stanford will form with Deb Haaland and Yvette Herrell the trio of elected officials from this state sent to Washington. New Mexico is the first state in the country to have all three seats in the House of Representatives filled by minority women.
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Wyoming elects its first senator
For its part, Wyoming elected for the first time in its history a woman, the Republican Cynthia lummis, as a senator. She already sat in Congress from 2009 to 2017… but as a member of the House of Representatives. The chosen one is notably known to be a fervent supporter of the cause of Bitcoin.
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Missouri’s first black woman
In Missouri, the Democrat Cori bush, elected to the House of Representatives, became the first black woman to represent that state in Congress. Figure of the Black Lives Matter movement, she is part of the left wing of the Democratic Party. A nurse, single mother and from the working class, she advocates in particular for an increase in the minimum wage, universal health coverage and a reform of the police.
The First. https://t.co/h3o0GxeFLR
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First transgender woman in the Senate
A transgender woman, Sarah mcbride, was elected Senator of the State of Delaware, a first in the political history of the country. The 30-year-old largely beat her Republican opponent, with 86% of the vote. The Democrat is currently a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the leading LGBT + rights organization in the United States. In 2016, Sarah McBride spoke at the Democratic convention, becoming the first trans person to attend a major party convention.
Our selection of articles on the presidential election in the United States
Find the campaign chronicles of our correspondent in Washington here.
On the election:
And also :
