Women will make up 11% of the new Congress — just a .5% increase over the current Congress. While nine new pro-choice women won House seats and two new pro-choice women won Senate seats in November, the total number of women in the new Congress will increase only slightly because some members retired this year.

The 105th Congress, starting January 1997, will have 51 women members of the House and nine women Senators. The 104th Congress had 48 women Representatives and nine Senators. At this rate it will take 280 years — until the year 2276 — for women to hold 50% of Congressional seats.

However, more of the women in the new Congress will be pro-choice and progressive on women’s issues.

All incumbent pro-choice women in the House won their seats — the only woman who lost was a right-wing, anti-abortion rights Republican woman, Andrea Seastrand (R-CA). No incumbent women Senators were up for election is year.

Retiring representatives whose leadership will be sorely missed include the dean of the women in the House, Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO), and Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IL).

Although a record number of women — 1,588 — will be serving in state legislatures, this represents just a .8 of 1% increase — one of the lowest gains in 20 years. Currently, women are 21.3% of the state legislators. At the current rate of growth, which has been essentially constant since 1972 with only an exceptional doubling in 1992, it will take 42 years — until the year 2038 — for women to gain equality in the state legislatures. This represents a generation and a half before women gain equality.

The states with the highest percentage increase of women legislators include: Arkansas, which went from 17 women to 23 women; New Mexico, which went from 23 to 30 women; and Minnesota, which went from 50 to 60 women. The states with the largest percentage of women legislators include Washington, with 38% women in their House and Senate; Arizona, with 36% women; and Colorado, with 35% women.

New Hampshire elected its first woman governor Jeanne Shaheen. West Virginia did not elect Charlotte Pritt for governor, who would have been that state’s first woman governor.

The new women in the U.S. Senate are Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. Collins joins Maine’s other Senator, Olympia Snowe (R), to make Maine the second state after California to send two women Senators to Washington. Both Landrieu and Collins won seats that were open because of the retirement of incumbent Senators.

Landrieu, 40, grew up in New Orleans and is the daughter of Moon Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans. While pursuing a career in real estate, she was elected to the Louisiana Legislature at the age of 23, and was a feminist leader in the state legislature. As state treasurer for eight years, Landrieu ended sweetheart deals that benefited politically powerful firms. Landrieu ran for governor of Louisiana last year, but lost the heavily-contested race. Landrieu is active on issues of child abuse and women in politics and business.

Susan Collins is a businesswoman and political aide. She worked for U.S. Senator Bill Cohen of Maine, and served in the cabinet of Maine Governor John McKernan. She was also the New England administrator of the Small Business Administration.

One of the most exciting wins in the U.S. House of Representatives this year is the victory of pro-choice Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) over Rep. Bob Dornan, a nine-term arch-conservative Republican. Sanchez did not declare victory until weeks after the election, because the race was so close and absentee ballots had not yet been counted. Sanchez, the daughter of Latina immigrants, is a small business owner who appealed heavily to women and Latina voters during her campaign.

Four additional pro-choice women defeated right-wing men in the U.S. Congress, many of whom were elected with the Republican take-over two years ago. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) defeated Rep. Dick Chrysler. Stabenow was elected County Commissioner at the age of 24, and has served in the Michigan legislature. She ran for governor unsuccessfully two years ago.

Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) defeated Rep. Dan Frisa. McCarthy was galvanized to run after her husband was murdered by a gunman using a semi-automatic weapon. When she found out that Rep. Frisa voted to repeal the ban on assault weapons, she decided to run against him for Congress.

Darlene Hooley (D-OR) defeated Rep. Jim Bunn. She has served in the Oregon state house, where she helped establish nationally-recognized recycling laws and led the effort for new laws on pay equity. She currently serves as chair of the Clackamas County Commission, and has established a project to mentor welfare recipients.

Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) defeated arch-conservative two-term Rep. Bill Baker (R-CA). Tauscher built a career as an investment banker and, after her daughter was born, she founded The ChildCare Registry, Inc., a national child care provider pre-employment screening service.

Several new pro-women’s-rights women members of the U.S. House of Representatives won open Congressional seats. Diana DeGette (D-CO) won retiring Rep. Pat Schroeder’s seat. DeGette has served for three years in the Colorado legislature, where she took leadership roles in combatting domestic violence and banning assault weapons. She also supported bills protecting access to abortion clinics and environmental clean-up.

Julia Carson (D-IN) won her race against a Republican pro-choice woman, Virginia Blankenbaker. Carson, one the new African-American women in the next Congress, began her political career in 1972 at the age of 33 when she was elected to the Indiana legislature, where she served for eighteen years. Most recently, as Center Township Trustee, Carson eliminated fraud and waste and wiped out the $17 million debt facing that public service agency. She is an advocate for poor people and single mothers.

Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), another new African-American woman in Congress, was a public school teacher before being elected to the Michigan legislature in 1978, where she currently serves. Kilpatrick is experienced in international women’s issues as well as drug abuse, transportation, and appropriations.

Kay Granger (R-TX) became the first woman mayor of Fort Worth, Texas in 1991. A public school teacher and businesswoman, Granger is for legal abortion but does not support Medicaid funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.

Strong women’s rights advocate Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) won an open seat in March 1996 when Rep. Walter Tucker was indicted and forced to resign. Millender-McDonald easily won the seat again in November. Millender-McDonald previously served in the California legislature, where she developed expertise in urban education, and before that she was a teacher and editor of a textbook to help girls explore non-traditional careers.

(Prepared using information from EMILY’s List; WISH List; Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP), Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University; NOW PAC; and the candidates’ Web sites. Special thanks to Feminist Majority intern Michele Friedman for her help with this article).