THE FIRSTS

The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress

By Jennifer Steinhauer

This year brings not only a presidential election but also the centennial of the 19th
Amendment’s ratification, which prohibited abridgment or denial of the right to vote
“on account of sex.” It’s an arresting convergence. In an era that has seen a woman come
within striking distance of the presidency and an influx of female candidates and
officeholders at every level of government, we continue to debate, as did those who
supported and opposed women’s suffrage a century ago, women’s impact on American
politics. Have women changed the culture of politics, its institutions and governance
itself? Or have they behaved as voters and officeholders pretty much like men? The
persistence of these questions informs Jennifer Steinhauer’s lively study, “The Firsts:
The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress.”

Steinhauer focuses on the 35 women newly elected in 2018 who helped make the 116th
the most diverse (by gender, race, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic background)
Congress in the nation’s history. Among their number were several notable
congressional firsts — including Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first
Muslim women elected to the House; Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, the first Native
American women representatives; as well as, at 29, the two youngest women ever
elected to the House, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Abby Finkenauer.

All but one of the new representatives were Democrats, part of the blue wave that
allowed the party to reclaim the House in the 2018 midterm elections. Steinhauer sees
“this younger, more diverse and more female legislative branch” as one that became
“immediately consequential.” Their election, she writes, marked “a historical turning
point both for Congress and for American women.” However, she also wonders what
difference their presence — as well as their impatience, sense of urgency, drive to
advance thoughtful policy and, yes, their diversity — will make in the hoary institution
they joined.

Steinhauer pursues her subjects and these larger imperatives in the warrens of
Congress, through hearing rooms, private offices, rented apartments, endless functions
and then across the country as the freshwomen make their way through their first
eventful year in office. She tacks with them between their duties in Washington, their
attention to constituents back home and briefly, as their first year closes, in the
presidential impeachment that would soon consume the House of Representatives.

In all these settings, those who owed their election, as many did, to broad mobilization
among deeply disenchanted voters across the political spectrum faced a perilous
“balancing act.” They sought to advance the varying causes that had animated their
campaigns, mindful of the divisions among and between the citizens they represented.
Amid the frustrations, some of the new congresswomen felt rewarded by gaining a
hearing for causes and constituents rarely heard. Their own lived experience suddenly
became a presence on the House floor. As the Massachusetts representative Ayanna
Pressley eloquently expressed it, “I’m in alignment with the contribution I seek to
make.”

With a journalist’s eye for the telling detail, and valuable experience covering Congress
for The New York Times, Steinhauer is often a few steps ahead of the newcomers. She
conveys throughout admiration, sympathy and compassion for her subjects while they
learn the hard way that hidebound traditions, a rigid seniority system and encrusted
modes of governance do not yield readily to even the strongest convictions. “The Firsts”
is an intimately told story, with detailed and thought-provoking portraits spliced in
along the way. Steinhauer makes herself a character in her account, sharing with readers
some witty and at times acerbic observations that keep the narrative moving along.

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What difference did the newcomers make in Year 1? Steinhauer concludes that they
have already “chipped away” at the goal of advancing legislation that assists those they
represent, as well as mitigating harm their communities face. She likewise credits them
with helping to “reframe the national debate over impeachment, climate change, gun
rights, foreign policy and electoral politics.” They have mirrored by their presence,
Steinhauer stresses, “broader cultural and economic shifts in American life.” In the end,
however, she wonders: “How will the women of the 116th be remembered in 30 years?”
Will “the influence of money, the quest for endorsements or the desire to rise in the
institution” vitiate their initial promise? In other words, will they change Washington,
or will Washington change them? That question, long asked of women in politics,
persists and may outlast even this rising generation.
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Ellen Fitzpatrick is a historian whose books include, most recently, “The

Highest Glass Ceiling: Women’s Quest for the American Presidency.”

THE FIRSTS
The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress
By Jennifer Steinhauer
262 pp. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. $27.95.

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