Pioneering Women in the U.S. Congress

With increasing
numbers of women serving in government, and even running for president and
vice-president of the United States, it is easy to forget that it was not long
ago when women were not permitted to serve in Congress. Thanks to the
pioneering efforts of some intrepid womenand the constituents who voted for
themour daughters need not think twice about contemplating serving in
government at the highest levels.

In the election of
1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to win a seat in the United
States House of Representatives. Her election was all the more remarkable
because it came before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution became law in August 26, 1920, giving all women in the United
States the right to vote.

The eldest daughter
of a rancher and a schoolteacher, Jeannette Rankin was born near Missoula,
Montana, on June 11, 1880. She graduated from Montana State University (now the
University of Montana) in 1902 and attended the New York School of Philanthropy
(later the Columbia University School of Social Work). Rankin became a
professional lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA), and through her work she helped Montana women gain the vote in 1914.
Elected to the House in 1916, she lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1918, but
returned to the House in 1940. Times had changed–as Rankin herself said,
“No one will pay any attention to me this time. There is nothing unusual
about a woman being elected.”

Who was the first
woman to serve in the U.S. Senate? The honor of being the very first goes to
Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia, who served for exactly one day in 1922.
Felton was appointed by the governor of Georgia to the U.S. Senate on October
3, 1922, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Thomas E. Watson.
Felton served just twenty-four hours, from November 21 to 22, by which time a
successor had been duly elected. At the time of her one-day service as a U.S.
Senator, Felton was 87 years old.

It wasn’t until ten
years later that the glass ceiling was truly shattered. The first woman to be
voted into the U.S. Senate was Hattie Wyatt Caraway. She was appointed in 1932
in Arkansas following the death of her husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway, who
had died in office. But she won a special election on January 12, 1932,
receiving a stunning 92 percent of the vote. The election spurred the creation
of the Arkansas Women’s Democratic Club, which threw its support behind
Caraway.

Known as Silent
Hattie,Caraway served for 14 years, but not without the support of Louisiana
senator and political boss Huey P. Long. She cultivated personal relationships
with a wide cross-section of her constituency and was a faithful, if staid, supporter
of New Deal reforms.

Caraway was the
only woman serving in the U.S. Senate until 1936, when Rose McConnell Long, the widow
of Huey P. Long, was appointed to complete his term after his assassination. The
Washington Postcomplained that her appointment impeded the advancement of women in politics. Women
have as much right as men to seek and fill political office,the editors
wrote. But every time a woman is elevated to a position of great influence
merely for sentimental reasons it becomes more difficult for those who are
really trained for effective public work to win recognition.

Accompanied by her
children to Washington, Mrs. Long assumed her husband’s committee duties. On
April 21, 1936, Rose Long won the special election to serve the remainder of
her husband’s term.

The first woman to be
elected to the U.S. Senate without being appointed or succeeding her deceased
husband was Margaret Chase Smith, who served as U.S. Senator from Maine from
1949 to 1973. Smith was the first woman to win election to both the U.S. House
and the U.S. Senate. She refused to make an issue of her gender, and said, If
we are to claim and win our rightful place in the sun on an equal basis with
men, then we must not insist upon those privileges and prerogatives identified
in the past as exclusively feminine.