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Christine Blasey Ford testifies before 17 male senators and almost no women

The gender imbalance was painfully apparent.

Heather Dockray

on September 27, 2018

Christine Blasey Ford testifies before 17 male senators and almost no women

Of the 21 senators who serve on the committee, just four are women. Credit: Getty Images

Christine Blasey Ford delivered gut-wrenching testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday -- and not to the most representative audience, either.

Kavanaugh's accuser told her story to 17 male Senators and just four female Senators today. Female prosecutor Rachel Mitchell was also on the panel to assist in the questioning. The eleven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are all white men.

All four female senators -- Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota, Senators Harris and Feinstein of California, and Senator Hirono of Hawaii -- are Democrats.

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Senate Republicans frequently deferred to Mitchell, who they hired to question Ford during the hearing.

Senate Judiciary Republicans, all of them male, deferred many of their questions to female sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell Credit: tom williams-pool/Getty Images

The images alone are arresting.

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Senator John Cornyn of the Judiciary Committee expressed skepticism of Dr. Ford before the hearing Credit: drew angerer/Getty Images

Women could mostly be seen in the audience of the hearing.

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The Senate is scheduled to vote on Judge Kavanaugh Friday morning.

Topics Politics

Heather Dockray

Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.