Most Americans have positive view about record number of women in Congress: poll

A majority of Americans surveyed in a new CBS News poll have a positive view of the fact that there are a record number of women set to serve in the House once the new Congress begins in January.

In the poll released Tuesday, 39 percent of respondents say they are “excited” about the prospect of record numbers of women in Congress, while another 28 percent said they generally were “satisfied” with the prospect.

{mosads}Only 3 percent of those surveyed said they were “dissatisfied” with having more female members of Congress, while 30 percent said that the number of women vs. men in Congress was irrelevant.

A slightly higher number of respondents, 48 percent, say that Congress will work “better than it does now” with more women in its ranks, while 45 percent of those polled said things will remain largely the same. Just 5 percent of respondents said they expected Congress will work “worse” with more women involved.

Most of the female candidates elected to Congress in this month’s midterm elections are Democrats, the poll notes, and the survey found that most Republicans do not think that their party needs to do more to recruit women.

Just 20 percent of GOP respondents said their party should do more to recruit female candidates, while more than half of GOP voters said that the issue did not matter to them.

CBS News’s poll contacted 1,103 adults nationally between Nov. 15-18 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.