An occasional feature looking at news topics through the numbers

First woman elected party leader in the House: Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, yesterday

Percentage of women in the United States: 52

Percentage of U.S. households headed by a woman: 25

Year U.S. women earned the right to vote: 1920

Percentage of women members in the history of Congress: 2

Number of women currently chairing congressional committees: 0

Number of states that have never elected a woman to House or Senate: 6 (Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Vermont)

State that has sent the most women-- 22-- to Congress: California

U.S. global ranking in its representation of women in national legislatures: 52nd (tied with Slovakia)

Number of female governors in 2003: 6 (most ever)

Number of female governors in U.S. history: 19

Number of women elected heads of state or governments in this century: 28

Number of female Nobel laureates: 29

Number of women in the U.S. Armed Forces (April 2001): 199,650 (15.5 percent officers)

Percentage of female astronauts at the end of the 20th century: 25

Woman who's come closest to the U.S. presidency: Madeleine Albright (as secretary of state, fourth in succession to Bill Clinton)

Number of registered U.S. women voters who voted in November 2000: 59,284,000 (60.7 percent)

Percentage of Americans who said they'd vote for a female president (2001): 93

Percentage who thought a man would do a better job leading the country: 42

Percentage of women who have served in all presidential Cabinets: 5

Number of the 14 Cabinet positions currently held by women: 3

Number of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (April 2002): 6

First female presidential candidate: Victoria Chaffin Woodhull in 1872

First female member of House: Jeanette Rankin, Montana Republican, 1917 - 1919 (and 1941-1943)

First female U.S. senator: Rebecca L. Felton, appointed for one day, 1927

First elected female senator: Hattie Caraway, Arkansas Democrat, 1931 - 1945

First female Cabinet member: Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary, 1933

First female Supreme Court Justice: Sandra Day O'Connor, 1981

First female governor: Nellie Tayloe Ross, Wyoming, 1924

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Department of Defense, National Center for Education Statistics, CQs Desk Reference on American Government, World Almanac 2002, NASA. Fortune Magazine, Nobel e-Museum, House of Representatives, The Inter-Parliamentary Union, Gallup Poll, Center for American Women in Politics, National Council of Women's Organizations, Federal Election Commission, The National Journal, the White House Project, Women-Headed Households Initiative