For a year that ended up on a historic high for women's rights activists, 2006 started out with a series of lows.

In January, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito, a pro-life conservative, to take the place of retiring centrist Sandra Day O'Connor. In February, Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota signed the country's first statewide ban on virtually all abortions, a law abortion opponents hoped would serve as a legislative vehicle to challenge Roe v. Wade. And in April, the Republican-controlled Congress passed a budget resolution that called for steep cuts to federal programs that aid low-income women and children; shortly afterward, House appropriators got to work enacting much of the GOP's plan.

But in November, the year took a dramatic turn. On November 7, women won unprecedented political power in the midterm elections and made historic gains in Congress, and voters backed a repeal of the South Dakota abortion ban and turned down a pair of initiatives to restrict abortion rights—repudiating religious conservative views on abortion and the restrictive legislative mechanisms regarding abortion they tried to implement.

In the single most important triumph for women, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi smashed through the glass ceiling that has kept women out of the upper echelons of political power throughout US history. As leader of the incoming majority party, Pelosi is the next Speaker of the House, the most powerful position in the legislative branch of government and second in the line of succession in the case of a presidential death. She will formally assume the post when the 110th Congress convenes in January.

In addition to Pelosi's pending coronation, Democratic women are poised to take key leadership positions in the House and Senate and are in line to chair a record number of congressional committees and subcommittees. In these positions, women will wield enormous power because they will be able to determine the shape of legislation that comes before their committees.

This is where 2006 stands out from previous election years. In the so-called "Year of the Woman," in 1992, women picked up a record number of seats in Congress but were shut out from most high-ranking leadership positions and had not acquired enough seniority to wield much power on congressional committees—the fulcrum of the legislative process. In the years since, women—especially Democrats—rose in seniority on committees and in party leadership, putting many in positions of power when the Democrats retook control of Congress on November 7.

"Was this the new 'Year of the Woman?'" asked Martha Burk, former chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, at a post-election press conference in Washington, DC. "Our answer is 'Yes,'" she crowed. "It is the new 'Year of the Woman,' because it is now normal for women to take leadership along with men. Every election year from now on will be the 'Year of the Woman.'"

In addition to reaching new heights of political influence, women also added to their ranks this year. The number of women in the Senate grew by two, from 14 to 16—or 16 percent of the chamber—and the number of women in the House rose from 67 to 71, and, depending on the outcome of one still undecided race, could jump by one more seat this year, which would make women an unprecedented 17 percent of the House. Another defeated challenger is taking legal action to challenge the result of her race in Florida.

Although women's performance doesn't match 1992, it beats every other election year in history. In 1992, women picked up 19 House seats and three Senate seats, putting 47 women in the House and seven women in the Senate. In the following election year—the so-called Republican Revolution of 1994—women picked up only one seat in the House and two in the Senate. In the years since, women have made incremental gains, with a high of seven in 2004. Prior to 1992, women made much slower progress. They made history in 1916, when the first woman entered the House; but there were only 32 women in Congress in 1990, 84 years later.

And yet women's advances are still moving at a turtle's pace, said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. Women now hold a record number of seats, but so far this year they have advanced their numbers only by about 1 percent this—from 15 to 16 percent (although women could get to 17 percent if they win some as-yet undecided races). "At that rate, it will take two generations" to reach the 20-percent "critical mass" benchmark that political experts say is necessary for women to push their own agenda in Congress, she said, adding: "That is not satisfactory."

But if women didn't make unprecedented strides in quantity, they did in quality.