Being a mom in Congress is hard. But it doesn't have to be, members say

WASHINGTON — When Rep. Linda T. Sánchez had her son in 2009, she planned to spend a month with her baby before returning to Congress. It didn’t work out that way. Still recovering from a cesarean section, the California Democrat was needed for votes on the House floor two weeks after giving birth.

And when the House Ways and Means Committee started marking up the 2010 health care law soon after, she sat in meetings that stretched late into the night, using a nearby office to breastfeed.

By the time Rep. Brittany Pettersen had her son in early 2025, not much had changed. The Colorado Democrat flew to Washington sooner than she’d hoped, casting a vote against Republicans’ budget resolution with her 4-week-old infant in tow.

Women now account for 28% of lawmakers in Congress, up from 17% in 2009. But erratic schedules and no formalized parental leave still make it tough for parents to serve — and it doesn’t have to be like this, said several moms who spoke to Roll Call.

With enough political will, some of those obstacles could be kicked aside, they said. The issue was in full view this spring, as a bipartisan group of members tried to create a proxy-voting option for new parents in the House (which ultimately fell short).

Rep. Nikema Williams said the challenges are a reminder that for most of history, Congress was not meant for moms. “As a woman of childbearing age and as a Black woman, this institution was not designed for me,” the Georgia Democrat said.

‘Building the wheel’

Sánchez was only the eighth voting member to ever give birth while serving in Congress, while Pettersen was the 13th.

“There were very few younger women in Congress. Most of the women had had children and then gone into politics as a second career. I really felt like I was building the wheel,” Sánchez said.

Now, her younger colleagues come to her for advice as they weigh starting families.

“What do you do for child care and how do you deal with the travel and what about school? What about sports?” she said. “I lay it out for them as honestly as I can about what it’s going to entail. And I’ve told all of them, it’s doable, but it is going to be hard and it’s going to be difficult. And if you have a support network that can come to D.C. and help you, all the better. I did much of it on my own and it was not a picnic.”

It famously took until 2011 for female lawmakers to get their own bathroom off the House floor, and lactation spaces were also scarce until Nancy Pelosi became speaker in 2007.

“I’ll never forget that one day, he vomited all over my blouse on the floor, and there was nowhere nearby that I could go to clean up,” Sánchez said.

In the case of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, she had to work to change the rules entirely. After becoming the first sitting senator to give birth in 2018, the Illinois Democrat convinced her colleagues to revise the chamber’s policies and allow infants on the Senate floor.

Like Sánchez, Duckworth chose to give birth in D.C. instead of at home in Illinois because she knew she might be needed in case a vote was close.

“I had to bring a 10-day-old baby to the Senate floor to vote, and it also meant that I couldn’t go home to have my baby,” she said.

As of last Congress, about 7% of members were moms with kids under age 18, compared to the more than 24% who were dads of minors, according to an estimate by the nonprofit Vote Mama Foundation, which aims to break barriers moms face when running for office.

Meanwhile, the median age of voting members in the House in the 119th Congress is 57.5 years, down only slightly from 57.9 at the start of the last, according to Pew Research Center.

Beyond the proxy fight

Those numbers were in the spotlight earlier this year as a bipartisan coalition in the House rallied around a proposal to allow new parents to vote by proxy. Pettersen said one thing she learned from the unsuccessful effort is that many in Congress don’t understand what it’s like for postpartum women.

“You’re walking through the airport, sitting in the airplane, holding them nursing, trying to manage getting all of your stuff here to support your baby. And some people are unable to even walk at that point,” said Pettersen, who gave birth in her home state of Colorado.

Her proposal with Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who welcomed her own son in 2023, would have allowed new parents to tap a colleague to vote as their proxy for up to 12 weeks after birth. Supporters said it would allow some semblance of parental leave while also ensuring constituents had a voice in Washington.

Speaker Mike Johnson moved to shut it down, arguing against proxy voting in principle and reviving a largely symbolic process known as “vote pairing” instead. But the conversation doesn’t have to end there, some say.

“I think it has opened the door to identify other opportunities for, OK, how can we support parents? If not this, let’s figure out how to keep moving forward,” said Danielle Stewart, adviser for congressional initiatives at POPVOX Foundation.

Some programs already aim to make things easier for congressional parents. In 2007, a summer camp was started for children of members and staff in the House. The Summer Enrichment Program, which is funded by enrollment fees and coordinated by the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, is for children ages 6-13 and takes place in July.

Stewart said other examples could include programs during new-member orientation about raising a family in Congress, along with mentorship pairings for parents. In January, POPVOX released a children’s book for incoming congressional kids.

Another idea, said Rep. Erin Houchin, would be allowing some family members, such as children under 12, to travel using funding from the Members’ Representational Allowance.

“That is a hardship that we have to be away and they can’t really travel with us, without going to our own expense, and you know, I think that might be of a benefit,” the Indiana Republican said.

Houchin stressed that parents who run for Congress know that frequent travel and long hours come with the territory. “I think we kind of know what we are getting ourselves into,” she said.

Scheduling conflicts

Working unpredictable hours and traveling at the last minute are part of the job for lawmakers, not to mention other employees across America. But some argue the schedule at the Capitol is uniquely inefficient.

“We have a joke among our fellow moms. You know, we could get done five days of work in about a day and a half,” said Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan.

One idea floated by the now-defunct House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress would be to change the House’s legislative calendar to include fewer travel days, when little work gets done. At a hearing in 2019, for example, the committee weighed the benefits of two weeks in Washington and two weeks away, which could reduce the number of fly-in and fly-out days.

Standardizing the congressional schedule would require deeper changes, since leaders in both parties have leaned on its flexibility to create leverage and get deals over the finish line. In the meantime, uncertainty is the norm.

“This is not about giving anyone a break or a handout. This place is not exactly the most efficiently run institution. It could be more efficient, and that would be accommodating to moms and all parents, for that matter,” Scholten said.

With Atlanta a relatively quick flight from D.C., Williams said if she had to, she could fly back to her district for a school event for her son and still make it back in time for evening votes. But she acknowledged that’s not practical for most. Having more moms in Congress could build momentum for policies that would help parents across the country, she said.

“If we make this so that it is not conducive for parents to serve, what does that mean for the policies that we’re creating? We already don’t have paid family leave in this country, but it’s indicative of the people who are serving here,” Williams said.