hattie caraway was the first woman to be elected to the senate.
hattie caraway was the first woman to be elected to the senate.
who was the first woman to be elected to the senate?
hattie caraway
the first woman in the u.s. senate was rebecca latimer felton, who served representing georgia for only one day in 1922. hattie caraway became the first woman to win election to the senate (arkansas), in 1932. margaret chase smith was the first woman to serve in both the house and senate; she first served in the house, and began serving in the senate in 1949. margaret chase smith won her 1960 race for senate in the nation's first ever race pitting two women (her and lucia cormier) against each other for a senate seat. muriel humphrey brown was the first and only second lady to serve in the united states senate. after her husband, hubert humphrey, was defeated in the 1968 presidential election, he ran for his old senate seat from minnesota. following his unexpected death, brown was appointed by the governor of minnesota in 1978 to fill her late husband's senate seat. she served for less than one year, and did not seek reelection.
women in the united states senate
in 1978, nancy kassebaum became the first woman ever elected to a full term in the senate without her husband having previously served in congress. since 1978, there has always been at least one woman in the senate. the first woman to be elected to the senate without any family connections was paula hawkins (r-fl), elected in 1980. there were still few women in the senate near the end of the 20th century, long after women began to make up a significant portion of the membership of the house. the trend of few women in the senate began to change in the wake of the clarence thomas supreme court nomination hearings, and the subsequent election of the 103rd united states congress in 1992, which was dubbed the "year of the woman." in addition to barbara mikulski, who was reelected that year (1992), four women were elected to the senate, all democrats. they were patty murray of washington, carol moseley braun of illinois, and dianne feinstein and barbara boxer, both of california. carol moseley braun, who was african-american, was the first woman of color in the senate. she was also the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator, having toppled senator alan dixon in the democratic primary in 1992. later that year, dianne feinstein was the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator from a different party when she defeated appointed senator john seymour in a special election. feinstein entered the senate in 1992 as the first female jewish senator.
women in the united states senate