You’ve probably seen the headlines or heard the talking points. People love to talk about "record-breaking" representation every election cycle, but when you look at the floor of the Capitol, the reality is a bit more nuanced. Honestly, if you're trying to figure out exactly how many women in the US congress are currently serving, the answer depends on whether you're counting just the voting members or including the delegates from places like D.C. and the territories.
Right now, in the 119th Congress, there are 150 women serving as voting members.
That breaks down to 26 in the Senate and 124 in the House of Representatives. If you add in the four non-voting delegates, the total number of women in the building hits 154. It’s a far cry from a century ago, obviously, but it’s still only about 28% of the total 535 voting seats in Congress.
How many women in the US congress by chamber and party?
The partisan divide is pretty stark. Most of the women currently in office are Democrats. In fact, out of those 150 voting members, 110 are Democrats and 40 are Republicans.
The Senate Breakdown
The "upper chamber" is often slower to change. Currently, the Senate has 26 women. That is exactly 26% representation.
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- Democrats: 16
- Republicans: 10
It's interesting to note that while the House has seen wild swings in numbers, the Senate tends to creep up one or two seats at a time. New faces like Angela Alsobrooks from Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware have recently made history as the first Black women to serve in the Senate simultaneously.
The House of Representatives
The House is where you see more volume. There are 124 women holding voting seats here.
- Democrats: 94
- Republicans: 30
When you add the four non-voting delegates (2 Democrats, 2 Republicans), the House presence feels slightly larger, but those delegates can't vote on the final passage of legislation on the House floor. It’s a technicality that matters when you're looking at raw political power.
A look at the diversity within the numbers
Numbers alone don't tell the whole story. The "who" matters just as much as the "how many." The current group of women in Congress is the most diverse it has ever been, though it still doesn't perfectly mirror the US population.
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According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers, the 150 women in the 119th Congress include:
- 93 White women
- 29 Black women
- 20 Latinas
- 9 Asian American/Pacific Islander women
- 2 Middle Eastern/North African women
- 1 Native American woman
These stats show a huge jump for Black women and Latinas specifically over the last decade. It’s kinda wild to think that for most of American history, these categories were basically zeroes on the chart.
Why the growth has started to level off
For a while, every election felt like a "Year of the Woman." 1992 was the big one. Then 2018 saw a massive surge. But recently, the growth has slowed. In 2024, the total number of women actually dipped slightly before stabilizing.
Why? Well, incumbency is a hell of a drug. Most people in Congress keep their jobs for a long time. Unless a seat opens up because of retirement or a rare primary defeat, there aren't many opportunities for new people to get in. Also, while Democratic women have seen a massive pipeline of support from groups like EMILY's List, Republican women have only recently started building similar robust fundraising networks like Winning For Women.
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The "Firsts" that still keep happening
Even in 2026, we are still seeing "firsts." Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, representing Delaware's at-large district. Julie Fedorchak became the first woman ever sent to Congress from North Dakota. It's sort of surprising that some states took this long.
Vermont was the very last state to send a woman to Congress when Becca Balint won in 2022. Before that, they were the lone holdout. Mississippi still has never elected a woman to the House, though they've had women in the Senate (like Cindy Hyde-Smith).
What this means for policy
Does it actually change anything to have more women? Research usually says yes. Women in Congress tend to co-sponsor more bills and bring up issues that their male colleagues sometimes overlook—things like maternal health, childcare costs, and domestic violence protections.
But don't assume they all vote the same way. A Republican woman like Marjorie Taylor Greene has almost nothing in common, politically speaking, with a Democrat like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The "women's caucus" is a real thing, but it’s often more about shared professional hurdles than a unified legislative agenda.
Actionable steps for following the data
If you want to stay on top of these shifts, don't just wait for the evening news. The data changes whenever there's a special election or a resignation.
- Check CAWP regularly: The Center for American Women and Politics is the gold standard for this data. They track everything from candidates to officeholders.
- Look at the "Pipeline": Keep an eye on state legislatures. That’s where most congresswomen come from. Currently, women make up about 33% of state legislators nationwide. As that number grows, the number of women in D.C. usually follows a few years later.
- Follow the primary dates: Most seats are won or lost in the primaries, not the general election. If you want to see the number of women in the US congress increase, the primary stage is where the real gatekeeping happens.
The trend is clearly upward, even if it feels slow. We’ve gone from Jeannette Rankin being the lonely "one" in 1917 to 150 today. It’s progress, but at the current rate, it’ll be decades before we hit 50/50 parity.