ArcaMax

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. -- Quick: How many women elected to the Senate are serving right now?

The answer is 25, or 25%, one-fourth of all members, according to the Senate Historical Office.

And, I just noticed, there may be an exodus of Senate women coming up in the November election. That number of 25 is a record-breaker, as high as it's ever been. But after a steady climb, a dramatic decline of women senators is likely on the horizon.

On the Republican side, Joni Erst (Iowa) and Cynthia Lummis (Neb.) are getting out of the game: retiring. Susan Collins (Maine) is vulnerable to a challenger. Most consequentially, Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) is a safe bet for the next governor of her state.

That makes as many as four women Senate Republicans leaving the floor, out the door in the next Congress.

Across the aisle, Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith have expressed their intention to leave the "greatest deliberative body." The plainspoken Klobuchar is favored to win as the next Minnesota governor, and Smith is retiring. The well-respected Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) is retiring.

That makes as many as three Democratic women senators leaving the chamber as of Jan. 3, 2027.

Seven gone from 25 equals 18, a dramatic decline in representation for American women, whatever party you are. They take their expertise and experience with them.

In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is locked in a tight race versus Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic Senate primary.

(Note: Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith is up for reelection in Mississippi, considered a safe seat.)

If you're a Senate birdwatcher, you may wonder why I don't count Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) nor Darline Graham (R-S.C.), the late Lindsey Graham's sister. They replaced men senators in their seats but were named by governors, not elected by the people in their states.

That brings us back to 25 elected women senators today, as few as 18 (or 20, if Moody and Graham win full terms in November) tomorrow. The number is going in the wrong direction, and not by accident.

In the current political climate, with President Donald Trump making his scorn for women clear, he's appointed to his Cabinet an inner circle of white men only. He publicly taunts female correspondents, such as Kaitlan Collins of CNN. Across the river, Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has fired or demoted a slew of women and Black military officers.

Presidential politics nowadays is almost like golfing at an exclusive club, the one extracurricular activity Trump enjoys. Unfortunately, that contagious state of mind has bled into the legislative branch. Call it contempt, or verbal violence by way of insulting female members of the press.

In fact, for those with a linguistic ear, the word "misogyny" was not even used in everyday American English until Trump trumpeted his rough way with women and was found liable for sexual abuse. His association with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender of underage girls, is under investigation, but we may never know the truth.

Abroad, the same trend is catching on. "As authoritarianism has risen around the world, progress in women's representation has stalled," Linda Robinson, a foreign policy expert, writes in her new book, "Women in Power."

In fact, political discourse that degrades women is part of a playbook for authoritarian leaders. Trump used this strategy against the two women he defeated, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, claiming "weak" women could not stand acting as commander in chief of the armed forces.

As of late last year, women were leaders in 26 countries, Robinson notes. But the number of countries led by women fell by 20% between 2023 and 2025.

"A half-century of gains for women political leaders is in jeopardy," she concludes.

Women, don't go out to sea. And we need male allies to support our rightful place in representative democracy.

I just took a field trip to Seneca Falls, New York, a well-preserved small town where the first women's rights convention met in 1848. Lucretia Mott was the star speaker. Their Declaration of Sentiments came 72 years after the 1776 Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

And women didn't win the vote until 1920, 72 years later. A long time coming.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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