Counts include current and past women senators.
*Women who self-identify as more than one race/ethnicity are included on CAWP pages for each group with which they identify. We strongly caution against adding totals from each racial/ethnic group should, as it will double count officeholders.
Of the 20 women currently serving the U.S. Senate:
- 1 identifies Asian American/Pacific Islander
- 19 identify as white
states (LA, ME, NE) have sent three women to the Senate.
California was the first state to send two women Boxer (D) and Feinstein (D) to the Senate simultaneously.
states (AL, AR, KS, MN, MO, NC, ND, NH, NY, SD, WA) have been represented twice by women in the Senate.
Since that time, four other states have been represented by two women simultaneously (KS, ME, NH, WA).
other states (AK, FL, GA, HI, IA, IL, MA, MD, MI, OR, TX, WI, WV) have sent one woman to the Senate each.
Currently, three states (CA, NH, WA) are represented by two women in the Senate.
-
1922
Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-GA) became the first woman appointed to the Senate, but only served one day.
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1932
Hattie Wyatt Caraway (D-AR), appointed in 1931 to fill a vacancy caused by her husband's death, ran for a full term and became the first woman elected to the Senate.
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1948
Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) became the first woman elected to the Senate without having first been appointed to serve. Smith had first come to Congress when elected to fill her deceased husband's House seat; she went on to be elected to the Senate in her own right.
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1978
Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) was the first woman to have been elected to the Senate without having previously filled an unexpired Congressional term.
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1987
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) becomes the first Democratic woman to have been elected to the Senate without having previously filled an unexpired Congressional term.
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1992
Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) became the first woman of color elected to the Senate.
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2012
Mazie Hirono (D-HI), an Asian/Pacific Islander, became the second woman of color to serve in the Senate.
The first woman ever to chair a major Senate committee was Kassebaum, who chaired the Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee in the 104th Congress. Caraway chaired the Senate Committee on Enrolled Bills during the 73rd-78th Congresses.
How the 46 Women Who Have Served First Entered the Senate
| Name | Party | Position | Year(s) Served | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelly A. Ayotte | R | U.S. Senator | 2011-2016 | New Hampshire |
| Tammy Baldwin | D | U.S. Senator | 2013-present | Wisconsin |
| Barbara Boxer | D | U.S. Senator | 1993-2016 | California |
| Maria Cantwell | D | U.S. Senator | 2001-present | Washington |
| Shelley Moore Capito | R | U.S. Senator | 2015-present | West Virginia |
| Susan Collins | R | U.S. Senator | 1997-present | Maine |
| Joni Ernst | R | U.S. Senator | 2015-present | Iowa |
| Dianne Feinstein | D | U.S. Senator | 1992-2023 | California |
| Deb Fischer | R | U.S. Senator | 2013-present | Nebraska |
| Kirsten E. Gillibrand | D | U.S. Senator | 2009-present | New York |
| Heidi Heitkamp | D | U.S. Senator | 2013-2018 | North Dakota |
| Mazie K. Hirono | D | U.S. Senator | 2013-present | Hawaii |
| Amy Klobuchar | D/DFL | U.S. Senator | 2007-present | Minnesota |
| Claire McCaskill | D | U.S. Senator | 2007-2018 | Missouri |
| Barbara A. Mikulski | D | U.S. Senator | 1987-2016 | Maryland |
| Lisa Murkowski | R | U.S. Senator | 2002-present | Alaska |
| Patty Murray | D | U.S. Senator | 1993-present | Washington |
| Jeanne Shaheen | D | U.S. Senator | 2009-present | New Hampshire |
| Debbie A. Stabenow | D | U.S. Senator | 2001-present | Michigan |
| Elizabeth A. Warren | D | U.S. Senator | 2013-present | Massachusetts |