offhandedly, how did jeannette rankin run? oh, she lost one voter replied. the discouraged rankin went to bed. finally, the newspapers reported, she actually won by more than 7000 votes. she believed that three favorable conditions brought her to congress. the support of women voters, the at large districts, and her stance against entering the war in europe. this last point we shall see also made it difficult for her to stay in congress. newspapers, reporters flocked to interview the representative elects. hitting the newspapers across the nation. some writers, though, wondered if transferred -- rankin could handle the stress of being the only woman in congress. >> while some reporters -- others did give her credit for braving the circumstances. one kentucky reporter noted, was there any man willing to become one of a deliberative body made up of 4034 women and himself? no, he included. a man in that position would have his courage bruised from the palms of his hands. to give you an idea of what it was like for her is the only female, jumping ahead to when sh

capital you will see a statue for jeannette rankin. the first women to serve in the u.s. house of representatives. in 1960 the purpose of the discussion was there was one woman in the u.s. senate. we put her on the screen. 11 and the house of representatives. and today there are 23 women in the u.s. senate and 83 in the house of representatives. can you talk about those numbers? >> the obvious response is this is good. we are moving in the right direction. i think if you put these 50 years in context, we really haven't come so far at all. i worked -- we are looking at situations where women at best are 20 to 25 percent of positions in power. be it in congress or elsewhere. if you go back to the excitement that surrounded the women's movement in 1968 there was a deep-seated assumption that 50 years hence women would be something close to 50 percent of positions of power. as i argue in my book what we see across the united states and across most of the developed world is these women seem to max out between 16 and 18 percent of power positions. it's a little bit better in co