Wonder Women of the Week: Women take the House

Our Wonder Woman of the Week goes to the over 100 women who were elected to the United States House of Representatives. Way to make history!

While often our Wonder Woman of the Week series looks at celebrities who are doing something influential or having a momentous week, we also want to bring attention to women in politics and other areas. With the United States midterm elections happening this week, emotions have been high, and we all have a lot of thoughts and feelings.

While things might not have gone how we wanted them to, there’s still a lot to celebrate. For the first time in history, over 100 women have been elected to the United States House of Representatives.

Sometimes it’s shocking how many firsts we’re still crossing as a country, but they are important. It’s always rewarding to see progress happening, even if it doesn’t always happen as quickly as we would like it to.

As the New York Times notes, “Women led a parade of victories and unexpected upsets Tuesday to win control of the House for the Democrats.” While there are so many amazing women who were elected to the House, and to other government representative positions, it’s worth noting a few of these women who broke glass ceilings.

• Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who are the first Muslim women to ever be elected to Congress.
• Abby Finkenauer, who is the youngest woman to be elected to Congress.
• Deb Haaland in New Mexico and Sharice Davids from Kansas, the first-ever Native American women to be elected to a seat in Congress.
• Massachusetts also elected their first ever black congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley.
• Texas elected its first ever Latina congresswomen: Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia.

Other notable women who were elected to the House this week include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York. This is such a small sampling of the talented, fierce, hardworking women in politics who have worked hard and campaigned for women’s rights, LGBT rights, racial equality, and many more important issues. It’s so exciting that there are so many women to talk about.

These women, and many others, have been working hard after Trump’s election. Many of these women ran grassroots campaigns and have done a lot of important activist work.

We would also like to celebrate some of the important women who didn’t win their races, but who are shaping politics and this country nonetheless. Senators Claire McCaskill and Heidi Heitkamp might not have won, but they are still making a difference. Stacey Abrams from Georgia hasn’t yet won her race to become governor, but she is definitely shaking up politics and making changes in her state.

There’s also more good news for women such as Representative Maxine Waters from California, who will now have more power in the House. She will now be chair of the Financial Services Committee.

While there is still a lot of work to be done and sometimes things are pretty scary right now, we want to celebrate these amazing women and the hope and inspiration they bring us.