By Elizabeth Holtzman – POLITICO Magazine – In January 1973, I was sworn in as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress—even though, at the time, I had no idea that I had set a new record. The press wasn’t paying attention, and I just assumed that because the constitutional minimum age was 25 and I was 31, many other younger women had been elected before me. Much later, when I learned the truth, I was excited and proud, but no one else seemed to care about it at all. It was a big yawn.

This past November, after 42 years, Elise Stefanik, a Republican from upstate New York, broke my record. She was 29 when she was elected. Today’s Congress is very different from the one I encountered in 1973. There are many, many more women serving today: 84 in the House and 20 in the Senate—19 percent of the 535 members of the House and Senate. When I was elected, there were only 16 women in the House and none in the Senate—just about 2.8 percent.

Women were oddities back then. I remember being told early in my tenure by an elderly representative from Georgia not to worry that I was a woman—or, he added, a Jew. Not all of the amenities of the House were available to the female members then. The gym, for instance, was completely off limits. And, there were absurd encounters over gender. When I was asked to take the speaker’s gavel and briefly preside over the House, one representative addressed me as “Mr. Speaker.” I had to correct him—and in the process set a precedent that a woman occupying the speaker’s chair should be addressed as Madam Speaker. And, once, during a House-Senate conference on a bill, another gray-haired senator asked me to bring him a cup of tea. Did he know I was a congresswoman or did he think I was a staffer? I’ll never know. In any case, I just ignored him.

via How to Be Young and Female in Congress – Elizabeth Holtzman – POLITICO Magazine.