American Herstory: The Story of Women's Progress in Politics
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Women's Advocacy in the White House
Abigail Adams was an outspoken women's advocate and the country's second First Lady. Adams played a double role, acting as John Adams' wife and political adviser; Adams supported her husband in his career but never failed to express her convictions that women should have the same rights as men. Many of her ideas were ahead of her time: she opposed slavery, stressed the importance of education regardless of gender and believed it to be the responsibility of the rich to support the poor. Her appeals for gender equality are seen as some of the first demands for women’s equal rights. |
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The First Women's Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Elizabeth C. Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the meeting, which was the first women's convention to discuss the oppression of women in sociopolitical, economic, and religious life. Convinced that women had to help themselves and take responsibility for improving their situation, they prepared the Declaration of Sentiments, which included twelve resolutions. The participants passed eleven resolutions, failing to pass a resolution for women’s suffrage. Decades later, the Declaration of Sentiments was used as a foundational document for the women’s suffrage movement. |
First Woman to Run for President
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull, a women’s rights and suffrage activist, became the first woman to run for president. She was the nominee of the Equal Rights Party. Woodhull, a resident of New York, was unable to vote for herself on Election Day, as at that time the state restricted the franchise to men. However, as she had been jailed a few days prior to Election Day for a story she had published in her newspaper Woodhull & Chaflin’s Weekly, her inability to vote due to her gender was of little consequence. |
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First Women State Legislator
The State of Colorado pioneered women’s participation in politics. Though the first attempts to establish women’s suffrage failed in 1877, Colorado became the second state to give women the right to vote in 1893. Clara Cressingham, Frances Klock and Carrie C. Holly of Colorado were the first women elected to a state legislature, the Colorado House of Representatives. These women focused on social welfare issues and pushed reforms for child labor laws, relief subsidies and the 8-hour work day. |
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First Congresswoman
In 1916, Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. She was a Republican from Montana, who served from 1917-1919, and again from 1941-1943. Rankin was a supporter of women's suffrage who lobbied Congress for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. As a progressive congresswoman, Rankin advocated a constitutional women's suffrage amendment and focused on social welfare issues. |
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Women Achieve the Right to Vote
On August 26, 1920, the women's suffrage movement came to a head with the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in all 50 states. Some of the movement's major drivers included the National Women's Party, which sought a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated women's suffrage at the national and state levels, respectively, and eventually merged. Women's participation in the First World War gave further impetus to the cause. |
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First Woman Governor
In 1924, women’s involvement in American politics took a leap forward when Wyoming and Texas elected female governors. Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson, both Democrats, succeeded their husbands in office. Ross became the governor of Wyoming in a special election, after her husband died. She had not been involved in politics before but wanted to continue her husband’s work. Miriam Ferguson succeeded her husband James Ferguson after he was impeached. Much of her work as governor was influenced by her husband. |
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First Elected Woman Senator
In 1931, Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Senator for more than a day. She was appointed after the death of her husband Thaddeus H. Caraway, an Arkansas Senator. Though she made few public appearances during her husband’s term, Caraway stayed involved in politics behind the scenes. After finishing her husband's term, Caraway was re-elected and served in the Senate until 1945. Her major policy focuses were farm relief and flood control. She was also wary of America's involvement in World War II and the influence of lobbyists. |
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First Woman Cabinet Member
Francis Perkins was a well-educated and engaging woman, who graduated from Columbia University and Wharton College with a focus on economics and sociology. She worked as a factory inspector and on the Factory Investigation Commission in New York City. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her as Commissioner of Labor when he was Governor of New York. Impressed by her work, Roosevelt appointed Perkins as Secretary of Labor in 1932. She was the first female cabinet member, serving 12 years during the Great Depression. Serving in what was a particularly difficult position during that time period, Perkins labored to create back-to-work programs for the struggling workforce. |
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First Woman Elected to Both the House and the Senate
Margaret Chase Smith’s political career started in 1940 when she succeeded her husband as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine. She served four terms in the House before being elected to the Senate in 1948, where she stayed for another 24 years. Smith engaged in foreign policy and military affairs, while serving as a member of the Armed Services Committee. She was the first woman to serve in both the House and Senate. |
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First Woman Running for President at a Major Party Convention
Senator Margaret Chase Smith ran for president in 1964. Though Smith was not the first woman to run for president, she was the first to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major political party's convention. Smith was on the ballot in several states across the country, including Illinois, where she received 25% of the vote. She eventually lost the nomination to Senator Barry Goldwater. |
First Congresswoman of Color
In 1964, Patsy Mink became the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She went on to serve for a total of twelve terms, representing Hawaii’s initial at-large district and then Hawaii’s second district until her death in 2002. Mink is most well known for being one of the principle authors of Title IX, as well as the first comprehensive Early Childhood Education Act and the Women's Educational Equity Act. Mink also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs after her first three terms in Congress. |
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First African American Congresswoman
Shirley Chisholm's career began in education. After graduating from Brooklyn College and Columbia University, Chisholm worked as a teacher. Soon she was the director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center and later an educational consultant to the Bureau of Child Welfare in New York. She successfully ran for Congress in 1969, becoming the first black congresswoman, and served as a Democratic representative for New York for seven terms. Her career in Congress was dedicated to education, and she served in the Education and Labor Committee. Chisholm was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. |
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Women of Color Running for President
"Unbought and Unbossed" was Shirley Chisholm’s slogan when she campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. She was the first woman seeking the Democratic nomination and also the first African American who tried to become the presidential candidate for a major party. She participated in 12 primaries and went all the way to the Democratic National Convention where she won 152 votes, but lost to George McGovern. Chisholm died in 2005, and the New York Times remembered her as an “outspoken politician who shattered racial and gender barriers as she became a national symbol of liberal politics.” |
First Woman Supreme Court Justice
In 1981, President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to replace Potter Stewart as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Although her nomination was originally opposed by pro-life and religious groups, who worried she should not rule in favor of overturning Roe vs. Wade (1973), she was eventually confirmed by a 99-0 vote in the Senate. While she was a conservative jurist, siding with the conservative justices in the majority of cases before her, many of her decisions were praised for being both narrow and moderate. She retired in 2006. |
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First Woman Vice Presidential Nominee
In 1984, Rep. Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman vice presidential nominee of a major party. Her running mate was Walter F. Mondale, who ran against incumbent Ronald Reagan. Geraldine Ferraro was born in Newburgh, NY in 1935. She graduated with a degree in English from Marymount College and received a law degree from Fordham Law School in 1960. Before being elected to Congress, Ferraro worked for the Queens County Women’s Bar Association and was a Queen’s criminal prosecutor. She served three terms in Congress. |
First Latina Congresswoman
In 1988, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen became the first Latina and first Cuban-American to be elected to Congress. She is currently the most senior Republican woman in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before becoming involved in politics, Ros-Lehtinen was a teacher, having graduated with a B.A. in education and M.A. in educational leadership from Florida International University, followed by a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Miami University. In Congress, Ros-Lehtinen served a term as the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. |
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The Year of the Woman
The 1992 election was significant for women's representation in America. Several factors came together to help women's representation, including the Anita Hill scandal and the subsequent congressional hearing, which illustrated the under-representation of women in Congress.The election bolstered the percentage of women in the national legislature; for the first time, women held more than 10 percent of congressional seats. A record 24 women were elected to the House of Representatives and the number of female senators tripled. The 1992 election sent more women to Congress than the previous five national elections combined. |
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First Woman of Color in the Senate
Carol Moseley-Braun was the first African American woman elected to the Senate, the first female Senator from Illinois and the first African-American Democratic senator. In 1991, Moseley-Braun challenged incumbent Alan Dixon in the state's Democratic primary, winning the nomination with the help of donations from Democrats and women from all over the country. Though she lost her re-election bid in 1998, Moseley-Braun continued a career in politics as President Clinton's ambassador to New Zealand, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Antarctica. |
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First Woman Speaker of the House
In 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected America's first female speaker of the House of Representatives. Though Pelosi came from a political family, she did not run for office until 1987, winning a special election in California's 8th District, which includes San Francisco. Pelosi is a strong supporter of health research, health care and housing programs; she also advocates human rights and environment protection. In 2002, Pelosi was chosen as the Democratic Leader of the House. She became the Speaker of the House in 2008 when the Democrats took control of Congress. Currently, she is again the House Minority Leader. |
"18 Million Cracks in the Highest, Hardest Glass Ceiling"
In 2008, Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the Democratic nomination for president to Barack Obama, winning more state primaries and delegates than any other female candidate before her. The former First Lady of Arkansas and the United States served in the U.S. Senate for New York from 2000 to 2009. After President Obama was elected, Clinton served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. There is speculation that she will be back on the campaign trail again in 2016. |
First Republican Woman Vice Presidential Nominee
Sarah Palin became the first Republican woman vice presidential nominee in 2008. At the time of her nomination, she was serving as Alaska’s first female governor and had previously served as Mayor of Wasilla. Since her vice presidential bid, she has endorsed other Republican women candidates for various levels of office. Although she was considered a potential candidate in the 2012 presidential elections, she declined to run. |
First Latina Governor
Susana Martinez was elected Governor of New Mexico in 2010. She is the first Latina woman to serve as governor of an American state (Sila Calerdón had already served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005). Prior to her election as governor, Martinez served as District Attorney from 1997 to 2011. Martinez's approval rating has not dropped below 60% since taking office. |
First Asian American Woman Governor
Nikki Haley was elected as the first woman Governor of South Carolina in 2010. She is the first Asian American and Indian American woman to serve as governor, and is also, at the age of 41, the youngest current governor in the nation. Prior to her governorship, Haley was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004 after defeating Larry Koon, who was then the longest-serving member of the South Carolina House, in the Republican primary. |
First Openly Gay Senator
In 2012, Tammy Baldwin became the first women to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin. She is also the first and only openly gay U.S. Senator. Prior to her election to the Senate, Baldwin had served in the U.S. House since 1999. She has been a staunch advocate for progressive policies during her 14 year tenure in Congress. |
Sources: Center for American Women in Politics and Wikipedia