The 2012 election might be remembered as the election of women. Women have historically been one of President Obama’s key voting blocs and once again voted for him in large numbers helping him to fend off white male defections and the loss of some of his independent supporters.

Women also played a big role in the U.S. Senate, as 20 women will now hold seats in next year’s U.S. Senate. One of them will be Tammy Baldwin the Wisconsin Democrat who was newly elected and becomes the first senator who is openly lesbian. The congressional delegation from New Hampshire will be entirely female and in Hawaii, the home state of Obama, Mazie Hirono was elected to the Senate.

According to the exit polls by a large new agency, 45% of men and 55% of women voted for President Obama, while 52% of men voted in favor of Romney. The large percentage of women voting for the president made a huge impact in some of the swing states such as Ohio, where the breakdown of the gender vote mirrored that of the national figures.

In 2008, when Obama was able to carry Ohio, he did so with 47% of the vote from white women in the state. Overall, 56% of women voted for Obama in 2008. Political experts have said that Romney, who enjoyed a surge in early October of support from female voters, might have hurt those gains at the second presidential debate when he commented about using “whole binders” while governor of Massachusetts. He also did not do well on a question about equal pay.