Women Account for About 15% of Congress

Women make up 50.7 percent of the U.S. population, but they only make up 15 percent of the Senate and 16.6 percent of the House, according to a Congressional Research Services report.

This is an obvious increase from 1945, when no women served in the Senate and about 2 percent of House members were women, but the number of women has leveled off recently and even dropped slightly compared to the most recent Congress. As the GOP pursues policies that alienate women, it will be interesting to note how that affects the participation of women in politics.