Women make big gains in Congress after election
It was a big win for women in Tuesday's election. And it was record-breaking.
For the first time there are now 20 U.S. senators who are women. And in southwest Washington, voters re-elected Jaime Herrera Beutler to join a record-setting class of women in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The day before the election was the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote in Oregon and going from voting booth to elected office didn't happen overnight.
Elizabeth Furse knows firsthand how things have changed since her time in Congress serving Oregon's 1st District from 1993 to 1999. At that time there was just one other woman in Congress, and she served in the Senate.
Furse served in Congress because she thought she could make a difference and because she was different from most of her fellow members.
"When I went to the Congress, in 1992 I was elected, they called it the year of the woman. We doubled the number of women," Furse said Wednesday.
After Tuesday's election, Furse celebrated not for women, but for what she believes women can do for the country.
"It's not that I think women make better decisions," she said. "What I believe is you can't get good decisions unless everyone is at the table. You can't have half of the population somewhere else when you’re making decisions."
She said last night's wins are not about a numbers game, but it's about the number other future candidates the women will inspire.
"What a wonderful job. That is a fabulous job," Furse said about her time in Congress. "I don't want to be sentimental about this but to actually represent the people you come from, the area you come from, what an honor. What an honor it is."
Furse has always believed a woman deserves your vote but now a country of voters is telling little girls they believe that too.
"It's so important to say: this is open to everyone. That is huge," she said. "Think of the little girls who will think, 'Oh, my goodness, I can be whatever.' It's lovely, and it will just get better."
Washington is one of two states, the other is California, with both Senate seats filled by women. After Tuesday's election, New Hampshire will not only have two female senators but its entire congressional delegation, U.S. representatives too, will be female.
Well, if they made big gains, they might just go on a diet!
It actually was a pretty bad net loss for women in this country.
Of course there are the gains in Congress but you have to calculate those with the tens of thousands of female babies that will be aborted this year.
So thats kind of an overall loss for women, and men I suppose as well.
@Jack_Bauer and you know that these female babies are going to be aborted how? what is your involvement with that point
 @Mike_J  @Jack_Bauer Apparently Romney would have immediately banned abortion (yeah.....speaking of smoking stuff)
 @Jack_Bauer Wow, way to take a big sharp conservative turn to the right.
On Tuesday night, I was proud to meet, and shake hands with Oregons first female Attorney General, it was a proud night for women across the country, gays across the country, and for those who believe in equality across the country.
"Equality across the country" like in immigration reform?
 @jpk Maybe I should speak in your language, "Oink-oink oink-oink-oink oink"
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 @HarryJuku Female and gay, I'd say that's quite efficient killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
 @HarryJuku And the problem with that is...?
I'll bet you 10,000 dollars there are "binders of women" happy to hear that.