--- title: Fewer Women Are Running in 2014 But Congress Could Finally Breach 20% description: Despite fewer women running for office in 2014 canonical: https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-11T14:36:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:07:49.324Z article:section: Politics og:title: Congress May Reach 20% Female Representation, Despite the Fact that Fewer Women Are Running og:description: Despite fewer women running for office in 2014 og:url: https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e8bc8377180542/6986a2cb55a859259ca827f2/jean-shaheen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Jeanne Shaheen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress May Reach 20% Female Representation, Despite the Fact that Fewer Women Are Running twitter:description: Despite fewer women running for office in 2014 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e8bc8377180542/6986a2cb55a859259ca827f2/jean-shaheen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Women Could Finally Make Up 20% of Congress This Year > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fc3247ff-f682-4ddf-ac50-55dce5503647&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Sep 11, 2014 2:36 PM UTC  Sen. Jeanne Shaheen D-N.H. is surrounded by supporters to file her campaign paperwork to seek re-election on June 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen D-N.H. is surrounded by supporters to file her campaign paperwork to seek re-election on June 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Jim Cole—AP  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Sep 11, 2014 2:36 PM UTC With women sitting atop half the Senate committees, it may feel like there are plenty of women in Congress, but the sad reality is only 18.9% of Congress is female. But every year, those numbers have been inching up and this cycle the share of women in Congress is set to [finally breach 20%](http://cawp.rutgers.edu/press%5Froom/news/documents/PressRelease%5F09-10-14%5Fpostprimary.pdf), according to new research. Hitting the unprecedented 1:5 female/male ratio depends on the midterm elections, according [to numbers compiled](http://cawp.rutgers.edu/press%5Froom/news/documents/PressRelease%5F09-10-14%5Fpostprimary.pdf) by Rutgers’ University’s Center for American Women in Politics. There are 15 women running for the Senate, 10 Democrats and five Republicans. Four are incumbents, three Democrats—Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, North Carolina’s Kay Hagan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire—and one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine. Seven are running in states with open seats: Republicans Terri Lynne Land of Michigan, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Joni Ernst in Iowa; and Democrats Michelle Nunn in Georgia, Natalie Tennant in West Virginia Montana’s Amanda Curtis and Oklahoma’s Constance Johnson. Four are challengers: Republican Monica Wehby in Oregon and on the Democratic side Kentucky’s Alison Lundergan Grimes, Maine’s Sheena Bellows and South Carolina’s Joyce Dickerson. But, overall, the number of women running for the Senate is down from the 18 women [who ran in 2012](http://cawp.rutgers.edu/press%5Froom/news/documents/PressRelease%5F09-10-14%5Fpostprimary.pdf). On the House side, there are 108 Democratic women running and 53 Republicans. For Democrats, that number is down from the 118 Democratic women who ran in 2012\. For Republicans, that number is slightly up from the 48 women who ran in 2012\. That’s a victory for Republicans who have improved on their ability to get women through their primaries. Overall, however, they recruited 13% less women to run than the 107 GOP women who filed to run in 2012\. This year, just 95 did despite a big recruitment push by GOP groups. On the whole, slight gains are expected in both chambers, meaning the number of overall women in Congress could, finally, breach 20%. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/"},"headline":"Women Could Finally Make Up 20% of Congress This Year","datePublished":"2014-09-11T14:36:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:07:49.324Z","description":"Despite fewer women running for office in 2014","url":"https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/","keywords":["2014 Election","women","Senate","Congress","2014 midterm elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e8bc8377180542/6986a2cb55a859259ca827f2/jean-shaheen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e8bc8377180542/6986a2cb55a859259ca827f2/jean-shaheen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeanne Shaheen","caption":"Jeanne Shaheen","creditText":"Jim Cole—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3326895/women-congress-twenty-percent/","name":"Women Could Finally Make Up 20% of Congress This Year"}}]}] ```