Women in the United States Senate Women in the United States Senate There have been 52 total women in the United States Senate since its establishment in 1789. The first woman who served as a U.S. Senator, Rebecca Latimer Felton, represented Georgia for a single day in 1922. The first woman elected to the Senate was Hattie Caraway from Arkansas in 1932. Fifteen of the women who have served were appointed; seven of those were appointed to succeed their deceased husbands. As of April 9, 2018 when Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi was sworn in, the 115th United States Congress has 23 female Senators out of 100
Women in the United States Senate 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. The first woman to be elected to the Senate without any family connections was Paula Hawkins, elected in 1980. In 1992, Dianne Feinstein was the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator