United States of America

The 113th Congress has been applauded for its diversity, but women – and specifically women of color, who only make up 4.5% of the 535 members – are still the vast minority.

Although women of color have made recent strides in politics, the fact remains: only two have ever served in the Senate. It was as recent as 2013 that Democrat Mazie Hirono became the first Asian-American woman elected from Hawaii. Hirono comes after Carol Moseley Braun, who was the first and only African-American woman elected to the Senate. She served from 1993 to 1999. 

Sen. Kelly Ayotte says a new Republican women’s political action committee is “Democrats’ worst nightmare.”

Surrounded in a room full of 400 people, primarily young women, Ayotte gave the keynote address at the launch party of RightNOW Women PAC on Tuesday night.

Ayanna Pressley and Michelle Wu stood side by side at the swearing-in of Boston’s new mayor, both symbols of the changing face of city politics.

Pressley, who is African-American, just won her third term as an at-large councilor, topping the at-large ballot for the second time. Wu, the first Asian-American woman elected to citywide office in Boston history, finished second in the at-large race.

Where are all the women?

A new study of women serving elected office in Utah shows that, even though Utah is one of the few states with a female Speaker of the House, the number of women serving in the state Legislature has actually declined over the past decade and only 12 of 161 mayors are women.

Former US representative Gabrielle Giffords — still recovering from a shooting three years ago — said Thursday that she might consider a return to political office.

The Arizona Democrat kept the door open when asked about such a possibility, saying ‘‘well, a little later’’ and ‘‘maybe’’ during an interview on NBC’s ‘‘Today’’ show.

The interview was aired a day after ceremonies in Tucson to remember the six people killed and 13 injured in the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting that occurred as Giffords met with constituents outside a grocery store.

“Our young women are forming a new era in female history,” wrote Massachusetts feminist Judith Sargent Murray excitedly. “The Rights of Women begin to be understood; we seem, at length, determined to do justice.” The year was 1798. It would be two hundred and fourteen years until her home state would elect its first female senator, Elizabeth Warren. This year, it might get its first elected female governor, likely Democratic nominee Martha Coakley.

Liz Cheney cited family health concerns as her reason for dropping out of the Wyoming Senate race, but her exit Monday came after months of struggling to gain traction in a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Michael B. Enzi.

Nearly six months after announcing her first bid for public office, the campaign of the former State Department official and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney had grabbed more headlines for causing intrafamily drama than for offering a decisive argument for her candidacy.