Women were as scarce as snake hips and chicken lips in the Senate in the ’70s. But after the swearing-in ceremony last week to open the 113th Congress, they could count 20, including five new additions.
“The quality of these women is so incredible,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) told the press. “I’m hoping that it will mean that this body will become more collaborative, more willing to compromise.”
The unprecedented number of women in the Senate–they now represent a fifth of the total–was so newsworthy that Diane Sawyer devoted two evenings to segments on the 20 on ABC’s “World News.”
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who won her first contest after being appointed to replace Hillary Clinton, told Sawyer that if Washington is ever going to be fixed, “It’s women who are going to lead the way.”
Gillibrand said she had spoken to President Barack Obama about this issue and the fact that the women have been conducting bipartisan meetings. “I told him about our quarterly dinners and I said, ‘Mr. President, if you want to see bipartisanship in Washington, invite the women senators to help you get it done.’ And he loved the idea and he plans to invite us to the White House.”
During one of the segments, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who at one time was seen as a possible presidential cabinet member, expressed some differences with her colleagues about the current standing of issues between Democrats and Republicans, specifically Roe v. Wade. “I don’t think they are entirely settled,” she said of the often controversial issue. “I have to say I was really shocked that those are powerful issues in 2012. I would think those things are settled, but they were forced forward as issues by people who thought that women should not have that kind of access. And boy, if that’s the case, then we better stand up and we better speak out.”
One of the real veteran female senators is Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski. She recalled how things were when she arrived inside the Beltway in 1992. “It was forbidden for women to wear trousers on the Senate floor,” she began, “and when I stepped out in my slacks, you would have thought I was walking on the moon.”
Now, a score of years later, and long after Hillary Clinton and her pantsuits, women are prepared to moonwalk with pride and power.
