The newly elected members of the House of Representatives took their "class photo" on Wednesday, providing visual proof of the history America made last week when it elected more than 100 women to the chamber.
Women have never held more than 84 of the House's 435 seats, so the midterm election of at least 101 women easily shattered the record. The members-elect are in Washington for orientation — learning about things like the underground passageways below Congress.
Many of the women pictured are making history themselves.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, dressed in red in the front row of the photo, is the youngest woman ever elected to the House at 29 years of age. Minnesota's Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar wears a veil, joining Michigan's Rep. Rashida Tlaib as the first Muslim women elected to the House. Kansas' Sharice Davids and New Mexico's Deb Haaland will be the first Native American women in Congress. Ayana Pressley and Jahana Hayes are the first black woman to be elected to Congress from Massachusetts and Connecticut, respectively.
The Democratic members-elect are all largely women and people of color, while the Republican members-elect are overwhelmingly white men. Just one of GOP incoming members-elect in the 116th Congress is a woman, West Virginia's Carol Miller.
Here's a portrait of Congress from 2016. Notice a difference?
