Congress

The public approval rating of Congress dropped to 12% in September 2011, fueled in part by bitter partisan debates on national healthcare, the debt ceiling and tax reform.

Sustaining gains by minorities in government becomes complicated as their ranks grow and the circumstances that allowed their unique candidacies to flourish evolve. Questions about how to ensure a more inclusive environment over the long term remain at issue. For example, a record 95 women were elected to serve in the 111th Congress — among 435 House and 100 Senate seats — but that number fell to 92 for the 112th Congress.

Despite progress in many areas of American professional life, women currently hold less than 17% of national-level elected offices, a lower rate than most of the developed world. The 2010 elections brought about the first-ever decrease in the female-to-male ratio in Congress since the first female representative was in 1916.

The 2010 midterm elections shifted the balance of power in the U.S. Congress. Before, Democrats held significant majorities in both chambers; after, their margin of control shrank in the Senate and disappeared entirely in the House. Some commentators said that the elections showed that the United States had become a “conservative majority” country, an assertion supported by polls that indicated that 42% of Americans described themselves as “conservative,” up from 37% two years before.