Big Win for Women

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts' first female senator

    Obama won the election, but he could not have done it without help from many different groups of people, including women. As this article from Time magazine states, Obama "carried 55% of the demographic — about the same percentage he carried in 2008 — including nearly 67% of single women." Based on CNN's exit polls, 55% of women voted for Obama. Aside from helping Obama get reelected, women themselves also seemed to have won pretty big on Tuesday night. This year, congress will have the most number of women House members since 1992. The number of women U.S. senators have increased to a record number of 20, three more than last year. Heidi Heitkamp became the first woman elected  as North Dakota's U.S. senator, Deb Fischer became Nebraska's first woman senator since 1954, and Maize Hirono became Hawaii's first woman U.S. senator. Hirono is also the first Asian-American woman to become a U.S. senator. To continue, Elizabeth Warren became Massachusetts' first female senator, and Tammy Baldwin became Wisconsin's first, as well. Baldwin is also the senate's first openly gay U.S. senator. Lastly, all six women democrats that were up for reelection won their races.
    After watching the election and seeing the growing power that women have in the government, I wonder if it will speed up any changes that may happen with the role of women in everyday life. I also wonder when the time will come that it will be just as "normal" for a woman to be elected into a government position as it is for a man to be. Even with the growing presence of women in government positions, I think that our country still may have a while before we reach that point. We've made progress, but there is still a ways to go. What do you think? What does the growing presence of women in our government say about our country?