Overview

This comprehensive reference guide to women who have served in Congress provides detailed biographies of each of the 200 women who have held office on Capitol Hill over the past 80 years. Along with statistics on their congressional service, the biographies contain first-hand interviews and personal anecdotes. An introduction outlines the history of women in Congress, the obstacles they faced early in the century as well as today, and their slow but steady rise to power within the congressional hierarchy. The introduction also looks at how women campaign for national office and how the sexual scandal surrounding President Bill Clinton played a role in women running for Congress in 1998. There are also two reference charts showing every woman who has ever chaired a congressional committee, and the number of women serving in each congressional session since 1917.