Hold u. S. Senate seats in january. After victories in massachusetts, north dakota, hawaii, wisconsin and nebraska, five new female senators will be on capitol hill. Thats 20 women senators, a net gain of three. For massachusetts, north dakota, hawaii, and wisconsin, these women are the first female senators from their states. Hawaiis mazie hirono will be the first asianamerican female senator, and wisconsins Tammy Baldwin the first openly gay senator. At least 77, possibly 79 women will take their seats in the house of representatives, only a modest gain. The number of Democratic Women in the house will rise from 51 to 63. Republicans added one woman. In new hampshire, another first. The election of a female governor and two women to the house, makes it the first state to be led primarily by women. The classic womens issue reproductive rights also made history in this election becoming for the first time in decades a winning issue for democrats. So, congresswoman norton, what was the most historic aspect of the 2012 election . Bonnie, the election of 12 was a strong echo of the election of 1992, the year of the woman election, except this time, women did double duty. They not only brought record numbers of women to congress, they pulled this president s election out of the fire. This election is as historic as the womens suffrage movement. They were fighting for their right to vote. This time we exercised our right to vote. When women come together, we have strength in numbers. This is the year when voters said enough is enough. When you look at the races, folks were saying they werent so much voting for mccaskill or donnelly, they were voting against akin and mourdock in those races. While we remain a nation divided, i think the diversity well see in congress is reflective of the voter demographics we see in our nation. Well, we remain a nation divided, but, clearly, the g. O. P. At this point is in reformation mode because of the changing demographics of the united states. What do you think is first and foremost in the partys mind in terms of reattracting women voters to the fold . There is such a sense of urgency, i can tell you, at this point. And so many people are talking. Jeb bush said it so clearly when he said, its about the tone. In this particular election, we were focused so much on the Economic Issues and, you know, thinking with the head and, really, i think, especially for women voters, in particular, its the heart issues as well. So whether well on the abortion issues, it was about the tone and the messaging. Its the messagings advocacy. In reaching out and talking to the women voters. I agree 100 . I think if akin and mourdock had said what they said in completely different ways, all right, we wouldnt have had the backlash we had. Eleanor pointed this out women delivered obamas race because they werent about to put up from the nonsense that was coming from the right. With the statements from mourdock and akin, women wanted romney to denounce it. Women wanted the party to denounce it, and romney never came out to denounce it. Bottom line is this we played it too safe, we didnt think women were monolithic voters or cared about the economy, but when it comes to legitimate rape and abortion, women stood together. I wish thats all it was, really, but the whole year, particularly when republicans took over so many state legislators, thats when the war on women, if you forgive me, began. You had record numbers of anticontraceptive and and antiabortion laws, even a tax on equal pay laws, the congress with the blunt amendment on where they actually had a vote on whether or not insurance policies ought to include contraception if the boss is in disagreement. So you can talk messenger all you want to or two members who clearly revealed the rubbish in the Republican Party, but, lets face it, women had a whole year, and then they had the republican primary to see it big and bold all antiwoman, personhood all the things the majority of the women are clearly not for. Okay, but let me ask you this sure. In the reformation to havo have of the Republican Party, is that going to be dropped . The reform . Are the social issues going to go the way that this election said they should go . I dont believe that the ultra conservatives and the key party will be the engines that will drive this party next go around. What we have to do is change the tonthe. And i think what impacted us in the vp debate when paul ryan was asked about roe vs. Wade, that scared women about back alley abortion. We cant talk about women as the unified block. Youve got the white married woman that went with romney. 96 of africanamericans, 76 hispanic, Minority Coalition and the single women that obviously the democrats did a smart play with the single women in threatening and i got a bunch of those direct mail pieces saying, oh, the republicans are going to take away your access to contraception, which is totally not true. Oh, im sorry wait, wait, wait. Sure. First of all, i want to switch to women in congress. Well get to more how people voted in the next segment. So the Republican Party lost two moderate women, Kay Bailey Hutchison and olympia snow. Is the Republican Party going to try to lure back women like that to run for the senate in the house . They need to. Even when i ran for office in 2010, no one was out to recruit me as a woman. No one was out to recruit me as a black woman, and they need to revamp the nrcc on how they recruit. Democrats are good at going out and seeking diversity. We seek the white, wealthy males that are a part of the establishment or have given to the establishment. If you look at the demographic after the election of the democrat and Republican Party, it says it all. The Democratic Party for the first time is majority women and minorities. The Republican Party the majority white male, and thats the story thats here. Absolutely. In fact, our organization which has been endorsing and supporting moderate republican women for 38 years, when there is almost no one left to support. We lost judy biggert, who is the only prochoice republican in congress. She just got defeated. So the secret of the revisitation of the Republican Party is women and hopefully moderate women. Youre very right about recruiting women to run. Im amazed that three or four times as many Democratic Women got elected this time as republican women. Because they ran and hats off. Because they were encouraged to run. They ran, were encouraged and supported, because it takes more than having just the passion to want to run. The party has to support you, raise dollars for you and get the vote out. It has to not kill you. No. Seriously. We have a number of republican women who get attacked by their own party. Im one of them. There is republican women running right now who are attacked by their own party, and thats what we have to fix. I want to hear more about this. You were out all during the campaign helping women, prochoice women of both parties and you ran for congress as a republican. Thats right. What do you see the Republican Party has to do to get women like you back in the fold . I left the Republican Party because of reproductive choices and options and in my 30some years of being a voter ive watched myself go from being a moderate republican, a liberal republican, to a conservative democrat to a liberal democrat in 30 years. Have you changed . My values havent changed. My hope is that the Republican Party looks at these outcomes, gets the message that all they need to do is encourage republican women just like you, angela, to run. Women who are prolife to run as well. And my hope is this gave the Republican Party a lesson they needed to hear, the same lesson why snow resigned. Why do you think abortion became a winning issue . The exit polls show at the end it was a pocketbook issue that drove the women to vote the way they did. And thats clearly in the exit poles. You cant say its just abortion rights. In certain swing districts, where its more urban thats denial. Our country is more prolife. In the last gallup pole thats not true at all. We dont have any problem with prolife women or no bush got elected, he was a prolife president. Every republican is going to be prolife. Not every. The fact is that there was no room in the Republican Party for anybody who was prolife, and women are prochoice. To say it didnt matter to women is not to have gotten the message. There was value added in these reproductive issues. All right, and we are out of time. From women politicians to the womens vote. Cari stein reports. After months of predictions about how women would vote in the president ial election, the guessing is over. Women who are 54 of the electorate voted in record numbers and voted overwhelmingly for president barack obama. 55 of the womens vote went to obama. 44 to romney. Unmarried women backed president obama by a 38 percentage point margin over romney, child 53 of married women preferred romney. The gender gap for president barack obama was 10 Percentage Points this time, a gain from 7 points in 2008. Sam bennett, why did women vote in record numbers this year . What energized them . Well, you can put a stick in the beehive just so many times and eventually, bees are going to come out. It started in the Republican Party debates where you saw this antiwoman, antichoice rhetoric unmitigated on top of 1100 pieces of legislation introduced across the country this election cycle at the state legislative level mitigating a womans ability to even get access to something as basic as birth control. So i think what we had was an unprecedented environment. I like to call it the parable of the boiling frog. You throw the frog in the boiling pot of water, they hop out. But if you keep the frog in the boiling pot of water, it boils to death. Women jumped out of the pot of boil water was the level of attack was so significant, so long, so unmitigated, they said enough is enough. Women are not monolithic, because if you see in certain states where mitt romney lost, you have rep women who did win. So i think because of the negative primaries and because of akin and mourdock stating illegitimate rape, women wanted obama in but had to split the vote to keep republicans in the house. Look at mccaskills race. She won because she went against the first one who said women cant get pregnant if theyre raped legitimately. I want to get to the part which evangelicals are a big chunk of the republican block. What happened to them and particularly evangelical women this time . Again, i think there was always the question of religion and no one wanted to state the obvious which is governor romneys religion being mormon and whether that would impact the vote and it seemed it did impact the vote this time. Its very unfortunate because i think, at the end, what we need in america would have been a president that could push our economy forward and do what we need to do do get out of the economic crisis we have been in. You know, really, its unfortunate when 2 million less people voted this time. Even in the swing state of virginia, you had less evangelicals come out as they did for mccain in 2008. 6 to 8 stayed at home. You would hope we could cross the race and religion barrier. But let me ask you this granted, i thought the republican field from the beginning was incredibly weak. Absolutely. But i saw republicans, once romney got the nomination, partisans gathering around him and saying, oh, the mormon issue isnt going to matter. And it did matter. There are evangelicals who see mormons as a sect and not christian, and they did stay home. So my question is, in reforming the party, will republicans say to themselves, hey, wait a minute, we goofed up by not getting somebody more conservative and somebody christian who would appeal to evangelical christians. Could they read the results that way . The right to life and the sanctity of marriage will always be a part of the platform. Always. How smart is that . The mormon religion did play a role, but also, mitt romney flipflopped on samesex marriage, they perceived that and also the abortion issue. So evangelicals can i think the Republican Party has become overly dependent on its evangelicals, and the real question is do they have anybody to replace them with. Once they begin to appeal more broadly as these are mostly older people, as these people pass, you really will have a big hole left in their party. And that points to important demographics. Single women voted for obama in 2008 and they voted for him in 2012. But the problem is the percentage of the population that are single women skyrocketed and the number of latinos in this country who are voting age skyrocketed. So for the republicans to and remember, were Nonpartisan Organization here, but lets talk about tactics, if the Republican Party can find its way to embrace immigration, sound immigration policy and figure out a middle road on how to talk about at least birth control, which 71 of identified prolife republican women believe women should be making the decision themselves, not the government. That makes them, by some definition, prochoice. So the Republican Party has to figure that out and figure out the issue of what to last word when you look at how africanamericans came out for president obama, it really shows that a vote is so personal, and it really goes back to if its the christian who wants to vote for a christian or an africanamerican who wants to vote for an africanamerican, it really comes down to when they go to the ballot box and makes their choice. Youre saying there is no major reformation of issues needed for the g. O. P. . Because theyre losing issues from here on out. There is the economic perspective, and from that message on its Free Enterprise and pushing Small Business and that economic message which i think very much favors the republicans, but there is broader issues like Immigration Reform where we need to Work Together with the democrats. That, i think, will help to let the latinos know republicans get it and we can work with you and bring you into the party, of course. Were out of time. Let us know what you think. Please follow me on twitter at bonnie erbe or at to the contrary. Behind the headlines when we come back, we are not looked at as veterans. Women in the service is expected to double over the next few years. We spoke with women vets about their needs as they trandigs back to civilian life. When we come back, were not looked at as veterans. People think, oh, you just served, you didnt have any combat. I was actually told that i wasnt even in a combat zone, and i was in iraq. Im, like, i was in iraq, i got bombed every other day. You get told a lot, oh youre just a girl. No, no im not just a girl. Im a soldier, a soldier first. There are estimated 1. 9 million Women Veterans in the us. Another 50,000 servicewomen are still expected to return from iraq and afghanistan. Many of these soldiers are coming back with physical injuries, but they also are incurring invisible, emotional injuries. I was sexually harassed a lot. I was the shift leader, and i was amongst men that werent used to having a female reservist in charge of them. When they did a post deployment checku me, they couldnt figure out what was wrong. I wasnt handling it well. I didnt sleep. I didnt eat. My moods were so erratic, and i didnt know what was going on with me. Veteran bridgette mccoy, says Women Veterans face different challenges than their male counterparts. Mccoy says their transition is made more difficult because the system is not equipped to deal with womens issues. Its everything from losing their children because of having the diagnosis of ptsd or bipolar or borderline personality, so losing their children to social services, housing issues, access to the financial services, homelessness, medical care. Mccoy says Women Veterans need economic and social supports. If you throw money at the situation, its not going to just solve it. There has to be the financial part and then the social part. So i say socioeconomic. Layla, bridgette and alicia say there just isnt enough awareness about the challenges faced by disabled Women Veterans. To bring these issues to light, they became involved in a documentary last year. When you get shot at, it doesnt matter if youre male or female. Their stories are featured in service when women come marching home. I think it is important to share the stories of women. The fact that we struggled getting out there that women in the military shouldnt be forgotten is important. The Women Veterans also have a strong presence on facebook. They say social media has helped them share their stories, heal and raise awareness. Why, mercy, do they have different issues from men . Jessica goodlet went to afghanistan and her job was to pick up the pieces of the body parts to have the soldiers. Can you imagine having that experience and coming home and trying to emotionally deal with that . Women, from an emotional standpoint, we deal with things differently. University of nevada, theyre doing research on the h hormonas of ptsd. What women have to deal with when they come home from behind the lines is incredible. Essentially, women in these wars are in combat. Theyre in the military police. There is no combat zone of the kind we knew before. Theyre right out there side by side and, by the way, not treated equally when it comes to pay and rank. At the same time, when they go back to where people go to rest, they are treated as women, and they are facing terrible, horrendous Sexual Harassment. So you put on top of what is a fronton experience, Sexual Harassment, you get something very different from and someone who has suffered from posttraumatic stress and the hormone levels, i was not gettin