This article covers the history of women in the United States Senate and various milestones achieved by female senators. It includes a list of all women who have served in the Senate, a list of current female senators, and a list of states represented by women in the Senate. The first female U.S. senator, Rebecca Latimer Felton, represented Georgia for a single day in 1922, and the first woman elected to the Senate, Hattie Caraway, was elected from Arkansas in 1932. Sixty-five women have served in the Senate throughout American history.
Currently (since July 14, 2026), 27 women are serving in the Senate, which is the most women who have ever served in the Senate at the same time.
Barbara Mikulski (born July 20, 1936) is the oldest living former female member of the Senate at the age of .
History
The first time a woman was nominated for the Senate was in 1893 in Wyoming, where women have had the vote since 1869. The nomination happened through a party caucus, since this was before 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment established popular elections for senators. Mary Jane Bartlett was nominated by the Wyoming Populists, receiving their unanimous nomination. However, the Wyoming legislature was deadlocked for weeks of voting on their senators: Republicans, Democrats, and Populists mostly voted for their own candidates. Bartlett received all six populist votes on a number of ballots in the legislature, but time ran out to choose the senator, and Wyoming ended up serving with only one senator, rather than two, that term.History of Wyoming, Volume I, Ichabod S. Bartlett (editor), Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1918, p. 222.
The first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton; she represented Georgia for one day as a symbolic gesture in 1922. Ten years later, Hattie Caraway became the first woman to win election to the Senate, representing Arkansas. She first filled the vacancy caused by her husband's death, and then was elected to two full terms. In 1938, Gladys Pyle became the first woman elected to the Senate without having previously been appointed to her position, and the first Republican female senator. In 1949, Margaret Chase Smith began her service in the Senate after serving in the House; she was the first woman to serve in both the House and Senate. Her 1960 reelection bid resulted in Chase Smith winning the nation's first-ever Senate election with two female major party nominees; the other major party nominee was Lucia Cormier. In 1978, Muriel Humphrey became the first former Second Lady to serve in the United States Senate, after her husband Hubert Humphrey's death in office. She was appointed to fill his Senate seat; she served for less than one year and declined to run for election to the seat. Also in 1978, Nancy Kassebaum became the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate without succeeding her spouse. However, Kassebaum's father Alf Landon was a former governor of Kansas, which means that the first woman to be elected to a full term in the Senate without being the daughter or wife of a politician was Paula Hawkins, who was elected in 1980 to represent Florida. Hawkins was also the first Mormon woman elected to the Senate.
The hotly contested Senate confirmation hearings in 1991 for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas involving the allegations of Anita Hill raised the question of the dominance of men in the Senate. Soon after, 1992 was dubbed the "Year of the Woman"; it was the first year in which four women were elected to the Senate. They were Patty Murray of Washington, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Dianne Feinstein of California, and Barbara Boxer of California. This made California the first state represented by two women senators (Feinstein and Boxer). Feinstein was also the first female Jewish senator. Carol Moseley Braun was the first African American woman to serve in the Senate.
Bathroom facilities for women in the Senate on the Senate chamber level were first provided in 1992. Women were not allowed to wear pants on the U.S. Senate floor until 1993, although the rule was seldom enforced. In 1993, senators Barbara Mikulski and Carol Moseley Braun wore pants onto the floor in defiance of the rule, and female support staff followed soon after, with the rule being amended later that year by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Martha Pope to allow women to wear pants on the floor so long as they also wore a jacket.
Olympia Snowe was the first woman to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress, being elected to the Senate in 1994 after having served in the Maine state house and senate and the House of Representatives. In 2000 Hillary Clinton became the first First Lady to be elected to the Senate. In 2008, Kay Hagan became the first woman to defeat a female incumbent, Elizabeth Dole. In 2009, North Carolina became the first state represented by female senators of both parties. In 2010, Lisa Murkowski became the first female senator, and the second of all senators, to win a write-in campaign for the Senate.
Patty Murray holds the record as the longest serving woman senator. As a serving senator, her record is continuously extended.
In 2012, a record five new female senators were elected. This beat the record of four new female senators from 1992 and set the record of five new women and eleven female senators in one Senate class. The five new women were Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Republican Deb Fischer of Nebraska. Hirono was the first Asian-American woman and first Buddhist elected to the Senate, and Baldwin was the first openly gay person elected to the Senate.
In 2014, Joni Ernst was elected as the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate. In 2016, Catherine Cortez Masto was elected as the first Latina senator, while Tammy Duckworth was elected as the first female double amputee in the Senate. In a June 2016 primary election, as a result of California's recent establishment of the top-two primary, Attorney General of California Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez became the first women of the same party to advance to a Senate general election. In November 2016, Harris became the first woman to defeat a woman of the same party in a Senate general election.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman, and the first female former senator, to have a major party's nomination for President of the United States. Despite winning the popular vote, she ultimately lost to Donald Trump.
Starting in 2017, United States Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, have held the distinction of being the first and second women elected as both the governor of a state and a United States senator from a state; both served as Governor of New Hampshire before their time in the Senate. Additionally, in 2024, former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte was elected Governor of New Hampshire, becoming the third woman and first Republican woman to hold this distinction.
In 2018, Kyrsten Sinema was elected as Arizona's first female senator and the first openly bisexual senator from any state, defeating Martha McSally. Two weeks later, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced that he would appoint McSally to Arizona's other Senate seat, which was becoming vacant with the resignation of Jon Kyl, who was appointed earlier in the year following the death of John McCain. Sinema and McSally have been the only concurrently serving female senators to have previously faced off against each other in a Senate election. McSally's appointment from the Senate ended in December 2020 after losing that year's special election to Democrat Mark Kelly.
Also in 2018, Jacky Rosen made political history as the first female one-term outgoing U.S. representative ever elected to the Senate, and Tammy Duckworth became the first sitting senator to give birth.
In 2023, Patty Murray became the first woman to serve as president pro tempore, a role traditionally given to the most senior member of the majority party in the United States Senate. Dianne Feinstein was the most senior Democratic senator but declined to serve. This made Murray the third person in line to become president, after the vice president and the Speaker of the House. Later that year, Feinstein became the first female senator to die in office.
In 2024, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware became the first two black women elected to serve simultaneously in the Senate.
Following the death of Lindsey Graham in 2026, Darline Graham, sworn in on July 14 of that year, became the first woman to represent South Carolina in the Senate, the first sister to replace her brother in Congress, and also the first sibling to replace a deceased senator. Her appointment marks the first time 27 women have served concurrently in the Senate, the highest number in its history. This includes a record high number of eleven Republican women serving at once, of which Graham herself is one.
As of 2025, 64 women have served in the United States Senate since its establishment in 1789. Cumulatively, 39 female U.S. senators have been Democrats, while 26 have been Republicans and one is an independent. As of 2023, no female U.S. senator has ever won election to the House after her Senate term, resigned from a state governorship for the purpose of a Senate appointment by her successor, also won election as an independent or to represent more than one state in non-consecutive elections, served both seats of a state at different times, or represented a third party in her career. In December 2022, Senator Kyrsten Sinema became the first female senator to switch her party affiliation while in office.
Some female U.S. senators have run for U.S. president (see list of female United States presidential and vice presidential candidates). In 2021, former senator Kamala Harris became the first female vice president of the United States and president of the U.S. Senate.
Election, selection, and family Women are much less likely than men to decide to run for election, despite generally having the same chances of winning elections as male counterparts. Research by Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox shines light on a few possible reasons. Women report much less enthusiasm for the motions of campaigning (such as fundraising or attending rallies) than men. They are more likely than men to decide not to campaign based on lack of resources. They are also much more likely than men to view themselves as lacking credentials, and time (even women with full-time jobs report spending more time on household chores than men). Finally, they are more likely than men to view races as competitive.
Before 2001, a plurality of women joined the U.S. Senate through appointment following the death or resignation of a husband or father who previously held the seat. An example is Muriel Humphrey (D-MN), the widow of former senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey; she was appointed to fill his seat until a special election was held (in which she did not run). However, with the election of three women in 2000, the balance shifted; more women have now entered service as a senator by winning elections than by being appointed.