Numbers Show Senate Women Get More Done Than Men

WASHINGTON -- The last Congress came close to being the least productive since the days of Harry Truman, outdone only by the Congress that preceded it. New research suggests that maybe if there had been more women on Capitol Hill, legislators could have gotten more done.

According to an analysis by Quorum, a new startup in D.C. that offers data on legislators, Senate women have been more likely than their male colleagues over the last six years to introduce legislation. Since the 111th Congress, which was sworn in in 2009, the average female senator submitted 96.31 bills, while the average male senator only submitted 70.72.

Bills that were introduced by female senators also fared better, receiving an average of 9.10 cosponsors, while male senators received an average 5.94. Quorum also found that female senators' bills made it out of committees more often, and were successfully enacted at a higher rate than those introduced by men.



The data suggests that women in Congress are less partisan than their male counterparts, working together and reaching across party lines more frequently. That makes the record number of seats for female lawmakers -- 104 in the current Congress -- good news for bipartisanship.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/20/senate-women_n_6717698.html

Women Are the Only Adults Left in Washington

With the federal government at shutdown's door, the 20 female Senate members are setting new standards for civility and bipartisanship. Look out, old boys' club



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As with most anything that happens on C-SPAN, the burst of bipartisan vibes was meant to send a message. But behind the scenes, the wheels really were turning. Most of the Senate’s 20 women had gathered the previous night for pizza, salad and wine in the offices of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat. All the buzz that night was about Collins’ plan to reopen the government with some basic compromises. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, proposed adding the repeal of the unpopular medical-­device tax. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow suggested pulling revenue from her stalled farm bill. In policy terms, it was a potluck dinner.

In the hours that followed, those discussions attracted more Senators, including some men, and yielded a plan that would lead to genuine talks between Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch ­McConnell to end the shutdown. The ­pieces were all there: extending the debt ceiling and reopening the government with minor adjustments to the ­implementation of Obamacare. No one doubted the origin. “The women are an incredibly positive force because we like each other,” Klobuchar boasted to TIME as the negotiations continued. “We work together well, and we look for common ground.”

It’s quite an irony that the U.S. Senate was once known for having the worst vestiges of a private men’s club: unspoken rules, hidden alliances, off-hours socializing and an ethic based at least as much on personal relationships as merit to get things done. That Senate — a fraternal paradise that worked despite all its obvious shortcomings — is long gone. And now the only place the old boys’ network seems to function anymore is among the four Republicans and 16 Democrats who happen to be women.


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Cigars and poker are out. The women’s club offers some of the same benefits that came in the original men’s version, as well as some updates: mentor lunches and regular dinners, started decades ago by Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in the Senate, but also bridal and baby showers and playdates for children and grandchildren. An unspoken rule among what Collins calls “the sisterhood” holds that the women refrain from publicly criticizing one another. And there is a deep sense that more unites them personally than divides them politically. “One of the things we do a bit better is listen,” says North Dakota Democrat ­Heidi Heitkamp. “It is about getting people in a room with different life experiences who will look at things a little differently because they’re moms, because they’re daughters who’ve been taking care of senior moms, because they have a different life experience than a lot of senior guys in the room.”

Read More: http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/16/women-are-the-only-adults-left-in-washington/