About Me

I am Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. I am also the Academic Director of the Clemente Course in the Humanities, in New Bedford MA. Author of "Social Security and the Middle Class Squeeze" (Praeger, 2005) and the forthcoming "Saul Alinsky the Dilemma of Race in the Post-War City" (University of Chicago Press), my teaching and scholarship focuses on American urban history, social policy, and politics. I am presently writing a book on home ownership in modern America, entitled "Castles Made of Sand? Home Ownership and the American Dream." I live in Providence RI, where I have served on the School Board since March 2015. All opinions posted here are my own.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Congressional delegations FULL of women, Mitt

The next time Mitt Romney chooses to venture down to Washington DC, in search of politically active women of talent and accomplishment, no binders will be necessary.

There are now Congressional delegations full of women -- though of course, the vast majority are Democrats.

Yesterdays election will leave the new 113th Congress with 20 female senators, the most ever.

 
16 of the 20 will be Democrats, reflecting years of party strategy aimed specifically at deepening the bench of nationally viable female candidates.

Joining the new Senate will be Democrats Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).  All six Democratic women up for reelection -- Sens. Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) -- won their races.

It is not unreasonable to believe that the nation's first female president will come from this group.

That said, while 20 women in the US Senate is progress, the overall number remains abysmally low by international (and moral) standards.  




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