Washington : Women are the backbone of any representative democracy, and the United States is no exception. Yet, the world’s oldest constitutional democracy has never elected a woman president: a fact that continues to strike political observers as something of an anomaly.
When Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state and first lady, ran for the presidency in 2016, she came closer than any woman before her to breaking that barrier. Instead, her defeat and Donald Trump’s victory marked a defining moment in the rise of populist politics, bringing the real-estate mogul to the White House and reshaping the political landscape in the world’s largest economy.
Several younger democracies, meanwhile, have had women occupy their highest political offices. From Indira Gandhi in India and Margaret Thatcher in Britain to more recent leaders such as Giorgia Meloni in Italy and Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, women have not only led their countries but also expanded the possibilities of political participation and ambition for other women.
India, too, is debating ways to deepen women’s representation in its legislatures, with the passage of the women’s reservation law bringing the question of political participation into sharper focus. Women leaders have long played a consequential role in Indian electoral politics: a comparison that frequently surfaces when observers juxtapose the world’s largest democracy with the United States.
This raises an important question: why does the world’s largest economy continue to have such a limited share of women in its national legislature? And, as the 2026 midterm elections reshape Congress, has the latest electoral cycle brought the country any closer to addressing that imbalance?
Record number of women entered the race
The 2026 midterm elections saw a record number of women enter the contest for the US House of Representatives. According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, 590 women filed to run for House seats this year, surpassing the previous record of 583 set in 2020.
However, the number of candidates who entered the race was considerably higher than the number who made it to the general election. A total of 271 women secured major-party nominations for the November election: 198 Democrats and 73 Republicans.
Women accounted for 31.8% of all major-party House nominees. The partisan divide was pronounced: women made up 45.5% of Democratic nominees, compared with just 17.6% of Republican nominees.
The figures underline an important distinction in American electoral politics. While women are increasingly entering congressional races, their chances of reaching the general election continue to vary considerably depending on the party they represent.
Fewer women in the incoming Congress
The candidate numbers, however, do not tell the full story. The more consequential measure is how many women will actually occupy seats in the incoming Congress.
The outgoing 119th Congress had 152 women among its 535 voting members, accounting for 28.4% of the legislature. But a count of CAWP’s roster for the incoming 120th Congress puts the number at 136 — 113 in the House of Representatives and 23 in the Senate.
This represents a decline of 16 women from the outgoing Congress. Their share of the 535 voting seats will fall to approximately 25.4%, reversing the expectation that a record number of women entering the electoral contest would necessarily translate into greater representation.
The incoming roster is particularly important because it accounts not only for women who won seats in the 2026 elections but also for senators whose terms were not due to end this year. CAWP’s list includes 16 incumbent women senators (13 Democrats and three Republicans) who will continue serving in the 120th Congress.
New faces, but no overall increase
The elections did bring several new women into Congress. Among them is Pia Dandiya, who won Florida’s 22nd Congressional District for the Democrats. The incoming House roster also includes newcomers such as Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier from New York, and Donna Miller from Illinois.
Their victories are significant in their own constituencies and add to the diversity of the incoming legislature. But individual gains have not been enough to offset the departures and electoral losses elsewhere.
The result is a Congress in which women will occupy a smaller proportion of seats despite the record number of women who sought election.
