Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 123 ~
were women; and, at the national level, only
4 percent of the members of congress were
women.
During the next two decades, from 1970 through
1990, all of these indicators of women’s status
changed, most rather dramatically, and women are
now visible if not prominent in virtually every walk
of life in the United States.
20
• Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982, and as of 1990 12.5
percent of all U.S. federal judges, and more than 8
percent of the judges on state benches, were
women.
• In 1984, Representative Geraldine Ferraro, a wife
and mother, was the Democratic Party’s Vice
Presidential candidate and the first woman in
American history to run on a presidential ticket.
• In 1991, 17 percent of all elected mayors were
women, up from just 1 percent in 1971. During the
same period the number of statewide elected
officials and legislators doubled, from 10 percent to
just under 20 percent. At the national level progress
