Coming up in CQR

Women in Politics (3/21/2008)
By Kenneth Jost.

The number of women holding political office in the United States has grown substantially over the past two decades. But even with a record number of 86 women in Congress today, men still outnumber women by more than 5-to-1. Historically, women faced significant disadvantages in running for office and winning voter approval. Experts say those barriers are lower, but perhaps not completely gone. Within Congress, female lawmakers have helped bring greater attention to some issues affecting women, families and children, but partisan divisions have thwarted some of their initiatives. Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton is waging the most formidable presidential campaign by a female candidate in U.S. history. But many of her supporters say her campaign has been hurt by still prevalent sexism in media coverage of the race.

D.C. Voting Rights (4/4/2008)
By Colin Soloway.

This November in addition to electing a new president, Americans will vote for a third of the Senate, and every member of the House. The 535 men and women in Congress represent the interests of some 300 million citizens on the vital issues of the day, from war and peace to taxes and spending. But when Congress convenes next March, nearly 600,000 Americans will have no representatives to vote in their name and in their interests. Last year the House passed a bill to provide District of Columbia citizens a full vote in the House for the first time in over 200 years. The resolution is currently stalled in the Senate under threat of a Republican filibuster. Advocates of voting rights argue that there is no constitutional barrier to representation in either the House or Senate. But opponents insist that since the District is not a state, its citizens are not entitled to representation under the Constitution.