Women and women-owned businesses are some of the fastest growing contributors to the United States economy, but their voices aren’t being heard by Congress. In a new report, Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) released some startling statistics that shows just how much women are excluded in Congressional Committees and committee hearings.
Following are some of those stats. Note that these results reflect the lack of women testifying on Congressional panels where private sector witnesses testified. They do not include hearings where only government witnesses testified.
Congressional Standing Committees (Excluding Rules and Intelligence)
- 43% did not include women
Congressional Select/Joint Committees
- 42.8% did not include women
Congressional Committees with Least Number of Women Testifying
- Senate Armed Services: 83% did not feature women
- Senate Budget: 60% did not feature women
- House Armed Services: 59.26% did not feature women
Senate Committees Featuring Fewest Women
- Armed Services Committee: 83%, or 5/6 meetings did not feature women
- Budget Committee: 60%, or 12/20 meetings did not feature women
- Foreign Relations: 59.26%, or 16/27 meetings did not feature women
House Committees Featuring Fewest Women
- Armed Services Committee: 59.29%, or 16/27 did not feature women
- Homeland Security Committee: 58%, or 28/48 did not feature women
- Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: 57.69%, or 30/52 did not feature women
Senate Committees Featuring the Most Women
- Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee: 88% of meetings featured women
- Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee: 77.78% of meetings featured women
- Judiciary Committee: 76.09% of meetings featured women
House Committees Featuring the Most Women
- Veterans Affairs Committee: 86.36% of meetings featured women
- Education and the Workforce Committee: 83.35% of meetings featured women
- Appropriations Committee: 66.6% of meetings featured women
WIPP urges Congress to understand that women-owned businesses should have their voices heard, and that means, room should be made for women on each committee’s hearing tables. You can read the complete WIPP press release here.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 20-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored ten books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics.
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