Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman so much for convening this superb discussion of Jeannette Rankin and a century of women in Congress. She, of course, was part of the great generation of suffragettes who transformed America by winning the right for women to vote, first in a lot of the State legislatures and by way of State constitutional amendment, and then by way of the 19th Amendment. So it is a fitting tribute that the gentlewoman brought everybody together to do this. I was reflecting today, when I heard that this was going to happen, about the fact that we have, in Congress, I think it is 85 women now, which is about one-fifth of the Chamber, and I think there are 20 U.S. Senators, which is also one-fifth on the Senate side. Obviously, those numbers are not proportionate to women's place in the population. I hope that we could use the anniversary of Jeannette Rankin's election to reflect on things that could be done to improve these numbers today. One of the things that I would love to be able to pursue with the gentlewoman and other interested Members is the use of multi- Member districts, which were much more common at the time that she first served than they are today. A lot of our States have multi-Member districts for election to State house or State senate.…”