Underrepresentation of women in senate

Women`s elective office-holding stands at an all-time high in the united states. Yet women are far from parity. This underrepresentation is surprising given that more women than men vote. You would think that since 1916, the year a woman (Jeanette Rankin) was first elected to U.S. Congress, there would have been some serious progress. Women in the workforce, after all, have been on a steady rise. Not so in Congress, where women hold less than 17 percent of seats to this day, according to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. One of the reasons why women are underrepresented it is because of incumbency. Men were in office before women, and once a person is in office, they have serious advantages for reelection.