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Centennial Anniversary of Senate Passage of the 19th Amendment

On June 4, 1919, one hundred years ago, the Senate passed the 19th Amendment. Read below for a list of 19 accomplishments for women since that historic day:

  1.   The 19th Amendment is ratified by the states, granting women the right to vote in 1920!
  2.   Sen. Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-GA) became the first woman to serve in the Senate in 1922.
  3.   Women begin to serve in the Armed Forces during World War II under the U.S. Army’s Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp in 1942. 
  4.   Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), already the first woman to serve in both the House and  the Senate, became the first woman to actively seek the presidential nomination of a major political party in 1964.
  5.   Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), the longest serving woman in Congress, was elected to the Senate in 1986.
  6.   Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) became the first African American woman elected to the Senate in 1992. 
  7.   1992 is dubbed the “Year of the Woman,” as the number of women serving in the Senate tripled by the start of the 103rd Congress.
  8.   For the first time, two women Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, from the same state (California) served concurrently in 1993. 
  9.   The Violence Against Women Act was approved in 1994.
  10.   Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) became the first woman to chair a major Senate committee in the 104th Congress.
  11.   Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), first elected in 1996, has never missed a vote in her 23 years in office – more than 6,900 votes in a row.
  12.   Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) became the first woman to represent North Carolina in the Senate after her election in 2002.
  13.   Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) became the first woman elected to the Senate from Wisconsin and also the first openly gay Senator in 2012.
  14.   Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) became the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate in 2012.
  15.   Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), an Army National Guard veteran, was the first woman combat veteran ever elected to the Senate in 2015.
  16.   Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), elected to the Senate in 2014, was the first woman Senator in West Virginia’s history.
  17.   The Department of Defense opened all combat positions in the U.S. military to women for the first time in 2016.
  18.   Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) became the first Latina elected to serve in the Senate in 2016. 
  19.   Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), appointed to the Senate in 2018, was not only the first woman in U.S. history to fly a fighter jet in combat, but also the first woman to command a fighter squadron.

26 women are currently serving in the Senate! Thank you to all of the women who came before us, the suffragists, who paved the way for women in politics and greater representation for women.

 

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