| Congress | House | Senate | ||||
| Dem | Rep | Total | Dem | Rep | Total | |
| 96th | 11 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 97th | 10 | 9 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 98th | 12 | 9 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 99th | 11 | 11 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 100th | 12 | 11 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 101st | 14 | 11 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 102nd | 20 | 9 | 29 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 103rd | 35 | 12 | 47 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 104th | 30 | 17 | 47 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| 105th | 35 | 16 | 51 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| 106th | 39 | 17 | 56 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| 107th | 41 | 18 | 59 | 10 | 3 | 13 |
| 108th | 39 | 21 | 60 | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| 109th | 42 | 23 | 65 | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| 110th | 50 | 21 | 71 | 11 | 5 | 16 |
| 111th | 58 | 17 | 75 | 13 | 4 | 17 |
| 112th* | 48 | 24 | 72 | 12 | 5 | 17 |
(112th projected based on current totals in AK-Sen, AZ-8, IL-8, NY-25)
Yes, not since the 96th Congress (1979-1981) have we seen a Congress with less women in EITHER house of Congress than there were in the previous one.
What about this year? In the Senate, no women Senators retired; Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas lost her re-election race, while Republican Kelly Ayotte won the open Senate seat in New Hampshire being vacated by Judd Gregg. Two more Senate races with women remain undecided. Democrat Patty Murray leads Dino Rossi by about 28,000 votes in Washington (with over half a million remaining to be counted). In Alaska's Senate race, 40.95% of the votes were cast for write-in candidates compared to 34.34% being cast for Republican nominee and Tea Partier Joe Miller; if as expected, most of those write-in votes are valid write-in votes for Lisa Murkowski, she will be returning to the Senate, and there will once again be 17 female Senators, 12 Democrats and 5 Republicans.
In called House races, there will be 7 less Democratic females, 6 more Republican females.
Specifically, we are guaranteed to see the following women in the next Congress (unless something happens to prevent them from taking office):
Republican women are in red font, Democratic women are in blue font, non-white (Latino, Asian, black, Native American, etc) women are in bold, and newly elected female members are underlined.
States which are not guaranteed (based on current results) to have any female members of the House Representatives in the 112th Congress are omitted from the table.
| State | # | Names |
| Alabama | 2 | Martha Roby (AL-2), Terri Sewell (AL-7) |
| California | 19 | Doris Matsui (CA-5), Lynn Woolsey (CA-6), Nancy Pelosi (CA-8), Barbara Lee (CA-9), Jackie Speier (CA-12), Anna Eshoo (CA-14), Zoe Lofgren (CA-16), Lois Capps (CA-23), Judy Chu (CA-32), Karen Bass (CA-33), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34), Maxine Waters (CA-35), Jane Harman (CA-36), Laura Richardson (CA-37) Grace Napolitano (CA-38), Linda Sanchez (CA-39), Mary Bono Mack (CA-45), Loretta Sanchez (CA-47), Susan Davis (CA-53) |
| Colorado | 1 | Diana DeGette (CO-1) |
| Connecticut | 1 | Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) |
| Florida | 6 | Corinne Brown (FL-3), Kathy Castor (FL-11), Frederica Wilson (FL-17), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL-20), Sandra Adams (FL-24) |
| Hawaii | 2 | Colleen Hanabusa (HI-1), Mazie Hirono (HI-2) |
| Illinois | 2 | Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), Judy Biggert (IL-13) |
| Kansas | 1 | Lynn Jenkins (KS-2) |
| Maine | 1 | Chellie Pingree (ME-1) |
| Maryland | 1 | Donna Edwards (MD-4) |
| Massachusetts | 1 | Nikki Tsongas (MA-5) |
| Michigan | 1 | Candice Miller (MI-10) |
| Minnesota | 2 | Betty McCollum (MN-4), Michelle Bachmann (MN-6) |
| Missouri | 2 | Vicky Hartzler (MO-4), Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) |
| Nevada | 1 | Shelley Berkley (NV-1) |
| New York | 7 | Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4), Yvette Clarke (NY-11), Nydia Velazquez (NY-12), Carolyn Maloney (NY-14), Nita Lowey (NY-18), Nan Hayworth (NY-19), Louise Slaughter (NY-28) |
| North Carolina | 3 | Renee Ellmers (NC-2), Virginia Foxx (NC-5), Sue Myrick (NC-9) |
| Ohio | 4 | Jean Schmidt (OH-2), Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Marcia Fudge (OH-11), Betty Sutton (OH-13) |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | Allyson Schwartz (PA-13) |
| South Dakota | 1 | Kristi Noem (SD-AL) |
| Tennessee | 2 | Diane Black (TN-6), Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) |
| Texas | 3 | Kay Granger (TX-12), Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) |
| Washington | 2 | Jaime Herrera (WA-3), Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (WA-5) |
| West Virginia | 1 | Shelley Moore Capito (WV-2) |
| Wisconsin | 2 | Tammy Baldwin (WI-2), Gwen Moore (WI-4) |
| Wyoming | 1 | Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL) |
The following women who were in the 111th Congress at the beginning will not be in the 112th.
Virginia Brown Waite (R-FL) [retiring], Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) [lost re-election], Mary Fallin (R-OK) [ran for Governor], Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) [lost re-election], Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) [lost primary], Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) [lost re-election], Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) [lost re-election], Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) (lost re-election], Betsy Markey (D-CO) [lost re-election], Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) [lost re-election], Hilda Solis (D-CA) [became Secretary of Labor], Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) [became U.S. Senator from New York], Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) [became something or other in the Obama administration], Dina Titus (D-NV) [lost re-election], Diane Watson (D-CA) [retired], Stephanie Herseth (D-SD) [lost re-election]
In 3 races which have not been called, looking at the present totals, there will be one further less Democratic female (Melissa Bean) and one further more Republican female (Ann Buehrkle of New York)
i.e. Republican wave seems to have made this the first time in 30 years that an incoming House of Representatives has less women than the outgoing one.
