YDA Jewish Caucus

Why are there so many women in the congressional Jewish caucus?

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) cuts to the chase. It’s the Jewish-mother factor, she says: They get things done.

“Is it surprising that a Jewish mother would be in the U.S. Congress?” Schakowsky asks with a laugh. “We know how to do things. We state our minds. Often we come from educated and successful backgrounds.”

Jewish women outpace their non-Jewish counterparts in the Congress, both in terms of the relative Jewish population in the United States – about 2 percent – and in terms of the male-to-female ratio in Congress.

Women hold 67 of the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, or about 15 percent. Of the 26-member Jewish contingent, seven are women, more than 25 percent.

They are Schakowsky; Susan Davis (D-Calif.); Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.); Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.); Jane Harman (D-Calif.); Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.); and Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.).
Continue reading Jewish Women on Rise in Congress – From the Jerusalem Post…