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"Last night, important news broke that not a single women will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress. Nope. Not-a one. According to POLITICO, &amp;amp;#8220;After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington.&amp;amp;#8221; If you&amp;amp;#8217;ll take a short hop down memory lane to November 7 when we reported that President Obama won the support of female voters with an 11 percent margin, and to additional concerns that GOP is continuing to lose steam among female voters, the announcement is a&amp;amp;#133;curious one by the Republican-controlled House. &amp;amp;#8220;We do have women in Republican leadership, including my friend and colleague Cathy McMorris Rodgers who was recently elected Republican Conference Chair, but certainly having zero women chair House Committees does not bode well for the party image, and it&amp;amp;#8217;s a missed opportunity to bring in different perspectives and leadership skills,&amp;amp;#8221; Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, (WV-2) said in an email statement this morning via her press secretary, Jamie Corley. &amp;amp;#8220;More than anything it&amp;amp;#8217;s emblematic of the fact that women are still very much underrepresented in Congress&amp;amp;#8212;on both sides of the aisle&amp;amp;#8212;and we&amp;amp;#8217;re working to change that.&amp;amp;#8221; Indeed, Congresswoman Capito announced her intention to run for Senate in West Virginia in 2014; she&amp;amp;#8217;d be the first woman to capture the seat were she to win. GOP political action committees like VIEW PAC, which help to elect women, are working to get more women in both chambers on the Hill, which Julie A. Conway, Executive Director, says is the first step. &amp;amp;#8220;Having more GOP women elected [to] Congress to work their way up in seniority will be the best way to ensure that there are more women Committee Chairs in the future,&amp;amp;#8221; she said. &amp;amp;#8220;On the positive side, we have more women in leadership than ever.&amp;amp;#8221; Conway also mentioned the two committees, the House Ethics and House Administration, whose chairs are yet to be named. &amp;quot;Women are lobbying very hard [for these spots], as well they should be,&amp;quot; she said. Conway added the decisions will depend on seniority within the committees, however, which is a reflection of the overall decisions of on chairmen. &amp;quot;This is not the war on women&amp;amp;mdash;it&amp;#x27;s just sort of how the numbers work. When you look at the math, we lost a net of three women in the house...There are just a lot more men serving in Congress than women. It&amp;#x27;s the unfortunate reality at this point.&amp;quot; Women still have a chance to be leaders in Democratic positions, as well. Rep. Nita Lowey (NY-18), who will begin representing NY-17 as the new session of Congress begins, or Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) will become the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, making whomever is selected first woman of either party to serve as ranking member on the committee. According to Matthew Dennis, Congresswoman Lowey&amp;#x27;s communications director, the top Democrat on Financial Services is expected to be Maxine Waters (CA-43). &amp;amp;#8220;It is disappointing&amp;amp;mdash;but not surprising&amp;amp;mdash;that that every single House committee will be chaired by a man in the 113th Congress at a time when American women comprise more than half the population,&amp;amp;#8221; Lowey told me in an email this morning via Dennis. &amp;amp;#8220;Women offer unique perspectives on the challenges facing American families and should have more leadership roles if we are to make progress during these tough times. Republicans need to adapt to the new reality&amp;amp;mdash;it is not the 1950s anymore.&amp;amp;#8221; Does this news feel like another setback to you as a woman, or do you feel like there are enough strong women in Congress that it&amp;#x27;s not a big deal? GOP-voting women, is this extra-frustrating to you? Lots to talk about, I think. Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2012/11/sozero-women-are-chairing-majo>