Male-Dominated Congress Adds New Women

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. meets reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (J. Scott Applewhite - AP)

WASHINGTON -- The first female speaker of the House will lead a chamber filled with more women than ever before.

Congress as a whole, however, still will be dominated by white men.

The House will add at least three women and the Senate will add two, bringing the total number of female members of Congress to at least 86 _ 70 in the House, 16 in the Senate.

Women were candidates in two House races that were too close to call Wednesday.

"It's still very hard for women to succeed and to actually get to the House of Representatives," said Rep. Hilda Solis, a California Democrat and co-chair of the Women's Caucus. "But that number just keeps going up every time we have elections."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to become the first female speaker of the House, with Democrats taking control of the 435-member chamber. She was helped by the election of at least seven new female Democrats.

"It's a real sea change of women taking political power and showing it in a most visible way, by electing Nancy Pelosi speaker," said Ellen Malcolm, president of EMILY's List, which supports female Democratic candidates. "We're going to have the highest number of Democratic women in Congress in history."

In the 100-member Senate, Democratic women scored victories in Missouri and Minnesota, pushing the number of female senators to 16, the most ever.

Republican women did not fare as well. Several longtime House members lost to men, including Rep. Nancy Johnson, a 12-term incumbent from Connecticut.

The number of black and Hispanic members will stay the same in the new Congress.

There will continue to be 40 black House members and one black senator _ Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois. The number of Hispanic House members will stay at 23 and the number of Hispanic senators will remain at three.

Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in America, making up nearly 15 percent of the population, but they account for only 5 percent of Congress. Blacks make up a little more than 13 percent of the population, but just 8 percent of Congress.