Women in Congress Regardless of their party or political philosophy, women have always found themselves a minority within the “old boy” Congress. When Catherine May (Republican–Washington) entered the House in 1959, she requested assignment to the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, only to be told that the committee's ranking Republican “just can't see a woman on that committee.” It took four terms before Representative May got on the committee. Other women members faced the same institutional obstacles and banded together in the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues to defend their interests and to promote their legislative agenda.
The 19th Amendment gave women nationwide the right to vote in 1920, but a woman had already entered Congress four years earlier. Jeannette Rankin (Republican–Montana) won election after successfully leading the woman suffrage movement in her state. She lost a race for the Senate in 1918. The first woman senator, Rebecca Felton (Democrat–Georgia), was appointed to a vacancy in 1922 and served for only a single day. Women were often appointed to fill out unexpired Senate terms, especially widows who succeeded their husbands. Hattie Carraway (Democrat–Arkansas) was appointed to take her late husband's Senate seat in 1931 and was expected to hold it only until the next election. Instead she enlisted the help of Senator Huey P. Long (Democrat–Louisiana), who campaigned with her and helped her win election in 1932. Six years later Carraway was reelected. Margaret Chase Smith (Republican–Maine) won election to her late husband's House seat in 1940 and then was elected senator in 1948. Smith served 24 years in the Senate and became an influential member of the Armed Services Committee. In 1968 Representative Shirley Chisholm (Democrat–New York) became the first African-American woman to serve in Congress. And in 1973 Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (Democrat–California) became the first member of Congress to be granted maternity leave.
More women have served in the House, where they are called “gentlewomen” in debate. Representative Rose DeLauro (Democrat–Connecticut) described the House as “a very competitive place,” where it is important to build coalitions. Because all women in Congress do not think alike, they do not always vote together. As DeLauro explained, “You build coalitions among women and you build coalitions among men."
In 1991 the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to be a Supreme Court justice and heard allegations that he had sexually harassed a female employee. Watching the televised hearings, many women became angry when they realized that no women served on the Judiciary Committee. Pointing out that women constituted only 2 percent of the U.S. Senate, more women ran for Congress in the next election. Frequently called the Year of the Woman, 1992 saw 24 new women members elected to the House and 4 new women senators. These included Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, elected to the Senate as Democrats from California, and the first black woman senator, Carol Moseley-Braun (Democrat–Illinois).
For a century the sign on the swinging doors just outside the Senate chamber read “Senators Only.” It was a men's rest room. Although women had served in the Senate since 1922, not until after the 1992 election was a nearby room hastily converted into a women's rest room. It was a small symbol of a major change in American politics.
Women in the Executive Branch Even before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, many women lobbied for reform as members of clubs or as social workers. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal made social welfare a priority of the federal government, many of these female reformers began to work at the national level. This new governmental focus coupled with the lobbying efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt and Molly Dewson, the head of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee, meant that more women than ever before helped shape U.S. policy in the 1930s.
Mary Anderson, an organizer of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL, founded in 1903), was made assistant director of the wartime government bureau Women in Industry Service. When this bureau was replaced by the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor in 1920, Anderson became its first director, improving women's access to employment, fair wages, and the vote.
Roosevelt gave another labor advocate, Frances Perkins, a place in his administration: she served as secretary of labor from 1933 to 1945, becoming the first female cabinet member and exercising great influence over labor legislation during her tenure. In addition, Roosevelt appointed Mary McLeod Bethune, the child of former slaves, to direct the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. Bethune's experience as an educator and founder of a school for black women made her the ideal manager of this New Deal agency, which worked to increase educational opportunities for African Americans. When Ruth Bryan Owen became Roosevelt's minister to Denmark in 1933, she made history as the first female U.S. ambassador.
Women continued to hold a range of positions in the executive branch in the period during and after World War II. The journalist and parliamentary expert Oveta Culp Hobby organized a military unit for women as director of the Women's Interest Section of the War Department in 1941. As the first American female colonel, she became head of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in 1942, which became the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. Her public service continued after the war: from 1952 to 1955, Hobby served as the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, making her the only woman to serve in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's cabinet. Beginning in the 1980s Elizabeth Dole held two different cabinet posts, exemplifying the range of positions newly available to women. As the first female secretary of transportation, she increased automobile safety regulations and led the campaign to raise the drinking age to 21 under Ronald Reagan's administration. As secretary of labor under President George Bush, she began the “Glass Ceiling Study” to examine barriers to job promotion for women and minorities.
Women continue to perform key executive branch functions as cabinet secretaries. By the time of the 2000 elections, Donna Shalala had become the longest serving secretary of health and human services in U.S. history, having begun her work under President Bill Clinton in January 1933. She was instrumental in directing and implementing welfare reform during her seven years as secretary. Alexis Herman was sworn in as the 23rd secretary of labor on May 1, 1997, becoming the first African American to hold the position. She had served previously as assistant to the President, as director of the White House Public Liaison Office, and as deputy director of the Presidential Transition Office in 1992.
Under President Clinton, Janet Reno and Madeleine Albright served in positions once considered the sole domain of men. Reno became the first female attorney general on March 12, 1993, just 33 years after she was denied a position in one of Miami's biggest law firms because of her sex. When Clinton made Albright the 64th secretary of state in 1997, she became the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. government. During Clinton's first term, Albright had served as U.S. representative to the United Nations and as a member of the National Security Council.
As of 1998, according to government figures, the representation of women in the permanent executive branch work force exceeds their percentage representation in directly comparable occupations in the regular civilian work force, in 10 of 22 of the executive branch independent agencies.
Women in the Federal Judiciary In 2000, 20 percent of all federal judges were women. Before 1928, there had never been a female federal judge. In that year, however, Genevieve Cline was appointed to the U.S. Customs Court by President Calvin Coolidge. The first female Supreme Court justice was Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993, was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
See also Chisholm, Shirley; Felton, Rebecca Latimer; Rankin, Jeannette; Smith, Margaret Chase
Sources
- Hope Chamberlin, A Minority of Members: Women in the United States Congress (New York: Praeger, 1973). Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in Congress, 1917–1990 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991)
