What Happens When Mom Goes To Congress?
The Washington Post has a great story today about the record (albeit still pretty miniscule) number of women in Congress with children under the age of 13.
The grand total, by the way, is 10. This is in a year when the total number of women in Congress is itself at a record high, with 16 women in the Senate and the 74 in the House.
Ironically, the story points out, the new five-day per week schedule adopted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (herself a mother and grandmother) is particularly grueling on parents:
“We have a lot of long weeks in Washington and short days, not using the time well at all,” said Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico, according the Post.
Sophomore Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida gets marquee billing in the story. According to the Post, Wasserman Schultz, a mother of eight-year-old twins and a three-year-old daughter, keeps her kids close by hosting each separately for one week in Washington while Congress is in session.
And when she’s stuck at a candidates’ forum and can’t find a pen, she’s not above pulling out a peach crayon from her purse.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30