What percent of members of the 119th Congress are women?
Note: This analysis reflects the 533 voting members of the 119th Congress seated as of Jan. 3, 2025. It excludes members seated later, notably Florida Sen. Ashley Moody, a Republican appointee sworn in on Jan. 21.
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
The 119th Congress opened with 150 women across both chambers.According to the data from the charts above, how many women are currently members of the U.S. Senate in the 119th Congress?
According to the data from the charts above, what percent of the House of Representatives of the 119th Congress are women?
Based on the data from the visual above, identify one trend in female composition of the U.S. Congress since 1917.
There are 535 human members of the U.S. Congress, even if you count Ted Cruz. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2025, females made up 50.5% of the American population, almost double the share of Congress (28%) that are females. Make a claim explaining why women are still so underrepresented in Congress.
There are a couple of firsts for the 119th congress. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester is the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in the Senate (wow!). She and newly elected Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland are the first two Black women to serve in the Senate at the same time (also, wow!). Republican Rep. Julie Fedorchak is the first woman to represent North Dakota in the House. Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware is the first transgender member of Congress. Sixteen states have never elected a woman to the Senate, and just one – Mississippi – has never had a woman representative in the House. But as of 2022, all 50 states have sent at least one woman to either the Senate or the House. What do you think is the main obstacle to women being more equally represented in the Congress?
Describe two policy changes that would likely result if suddenly the percent of male and female congress members flipped.
Based on the data in this chart, what year do you predict Congress will become 1/2 male and 1/2 female.
The 119th Congress opened with 110 Democratic women and 40 Republican women across both chambers. Women make up 42% of congressional Democrats and 15% of congressional Republicans, very similar to where things stood at the start of the last Congress. Looking at each chamber individually, women now account for:
44% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans in the House
34% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans in the Senate
Women’s share of Congress hasn’t always tilted so Democratic. Until the Great Depression, most of the dozen women who had been elected to the House were Republicans. And for several decades afterward, women’s representation in that chamber was fairly evenly divided between the parties. But the gap widened in the 1970s and has persisted, despite a temporary narrowing during the 1980s. Why do you think the women in the Congress tilts Democratic?
The 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women across the nation, was ratified in 1920. Make a claim explaining the connection between that amendment and female representation in the Congress since then.
The election of Donald Trump in 2024 was, among other things, a repudiation of DEI policy and a reaction to the #MeToo and the #BlackLivesMatter movements. You will also note a slight downturn in female representation in the new Congress. Some pundits predict that, in reaction to Donald Trump, there will be a surge in female and minority elected officials in 2026. Explain whether you think women and minority membership will increase in the next election.
Learning Extension
Read this short, short, short and sweet, sweet, sweet Pew Research Center report on the incoming class of female representatives.
Action Extension
Share the names of any women who represent your state in the House or the Senate with your classmates.