New Hampshire's all-female delegation

New Hampshire made history this past November electing an entirely female delegation (a first in our nation's history.) Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen hold the two Senate seats, and New Hampshire voters elected Maggie Hassan to the post of governor and Ann McLane Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter to the House of Representatives.

A recent article in the New York Times ("From Congress to Halls of State, in New Hampshire, Women Rule", Jan 1, 2013) includes some notable facts about women serving in the House and Senate:

Women will make up 20 percent of the new Senate and 17.9 percent of the new House. These are records in Washington, but they fall far short of matching the 50.8 percent of the general population that is female.

While New Hampshire is doing more than its share of bolstering the number of women on Capitol Hill, six states — Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and Vermont — have never elected a woman to the House. And four of those — Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi and Vermont — have never sent a woman to the Senate.

The state after New Hampshire, with the next highest proportion of women in its Congressional delegation, is Hawaii, where both House members and one senator are women.

In only three other states, Maine, Missouri and Washington, do women make up at least half of the delegations. Sixteen states, including New Jersey, have no women in Congress.

Here is video from a recent forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College (Manchester, NH). The sound quality isn't great, but if you listen carefully, there are some interesting reflections that these female leaders share:

Perhaps we'll see Joyce Ivy Foundation alumnae serving their Midwest states in Congress someday?