INTRODUCTION UNITED STATES CAPITOL THE SENATE THE HOUSE SIDE SIDE SEE that building The one with the wedding cake dome It's really made of cast iron That's the United States Capitol Building It's the home of the United States Congress The United States is governed by three equal branches of PRECUTIVE government LEGISLATIVE BUDICIA THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH Hail to the chief THE JUDICIAL BRANCH Nine count em nine Supreme Court Judges THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH That's the Congress 3 BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT Our Congress has two parts known as chambers the Senate and the House of Representatives the House for short viii
MEN THEIR RIGHTS AND NOTHING MORE WOMEN THEIR RIGHTS AND NOTHING LESS 0 INADA The Senate has 100 members two senators from every state in the Union no matter how big or how small Each senator is elected for a six year term The House currently has 435 members The number of representatives from each state depends on population The states with the most people have the most representatives Representatives are elected for a two year term The word Congress has another meaning It's also the name for the two year period when senators and representatives meet in Washington D.C. to do their work Since the founding of our country there have been more than a hundred Congresses Guess how many women served in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives from the first Congress in 1789 until the 65th Congress began in 1917 200 100 50 Zero Nada None That's right there was not one woman senator or member of the House during the first 128 years of our country's history What's up with that ZERO Each state also has its own version of Congress Forty nine of the fifty states have two chamber legislatures usually called the Senate and the House of Representatives though some have other names Nebraska's legislature has just one body and it's called the Senate Although the United States House and Senate did not have a woman representative until 1917 three women were elected to Colorado's House of Representatives in 1894 Colorado was the first state to have women legislators But that's another story ix
MEN THEIR RIGHTS AND NOTHING MORE Suffragists standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol 1914 THE
