She went after the leadership very publicly. Well, very shortly, they came around and put her on to the Committee Assignments that she wanted. One of the artifacts that we have that im particularly fond of is this one. Its a letter from j. Ed guard hoover to congresswoman khan and the important part of this isnt actually what hes writing. Whats important is dear mother khan. And its an odd phrasing for j. Ed card hoover. But she was known very much as the mother of the fbi. So that was often how he referred to her. So this is a fascinating piece of lobbying and playing up that affiliation and that close tie that they had. By the time we get to the late 1930s, early 1940s, were beginning to see a Different Group from that Pioneer Group of women coming to congress. World war ii reshapes the rolled of women in society generally, women hold a lot of jobs that men previously held as men go off to fight in the service. And women who come into congress during that era begin to advocate more of a role for women outside the home. Mary norton was one of them. She was constantly urging women to be involved in politics, to be involved outside the home. Even when the war ended, she feared that that might contract again and women would kind of be forced back into a domesticated role. One of the prominent people who serves in the 1940s are helen douglas. We have a picture of her here from that time period. And do us douglas was well known to constituents. She represented a district that encompassed a part of los angeles, california, but she was known nationally. She was the start of the stage, married to melvin douglas, the actor. And she became involved in california politics and was a progressive and began to speak a lot on behalf of Democratic Candidates. And she won election to the house for a couple of terms in the 1940s. She wasnt really a legislator, per se. She wasnt introducing a lot of bills. She wasnt what we would call a legislative entrepreneur, but she was a spokesperson for progressive issues. So she would often come on to the floor and talk about improving housing, africanamerican civil rights, so she was known as a great speakmaker. So here is a campaign bill or poster which advertises speaking engagements that douglas made in 1948. It happens in oakland, which is far from her district, so you get the sense that she was on the speaking circuit a lot, speaking for Democratic Candidates and democratic issues. She serves a couple of terms in the house and in the early 1950s, she decide toes run for the u. S. Senate. And she goes through the primary, the democratic primary and the candidate one of the candidates she ran against and have tarred her as being a sympathizer, a red sympathizer which was a potent attack in the early 1950s, the era of mccarthy, but she wins that name nation and in the general election, runs against Richard Nixon who uses a lot of the same tactics that have been employed against her in the primary and accuses her of being pink right down to her underwear. Well, she returned fired because in one Campaign Speech she labeled nixon as tricky dick which was a name that tum stuck with him as part of his political career. But that campaign tactic, kind of tying her to the the red scare and communist simples was potent because nixon won in a land slide and she leaves politics. This is a 1941 magazine, coronet, which hasnt survived into the 21st century. Its a magazine aimed at women. An expo says of bachelor days and nights. But ns, theres an article on women in congress. And one of the things that i love about this is that this sort of a great example of how the press didnt know where to have women in congress. These women are in some cases all business. Jessie sumner here and lots of the women that we know from long service, all these folks are here and they are very bus like. But often theyre described as wealthy or 5 dpooet 3 or, you know, tiny brunette, things like that that are really its a tricky position for them. To figure out. And in this transitional situation, its complicated. And when the war ends, its going to get more complicated. In this case, its an interesting contrast here. Jessie sumner here is on the phone and taking care of business. But overhere, we have Margaret Chase smith who is tending some flowers. And she has a wonderful, fascinating long career. This is a visitor pass, a gallery pass that is signed by Margaret Smith in 1941 and gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs as trips to the capitol. This is perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women in congress at the time. It was mentioned this is a transitional time period and Margaret Smith embodies that. Wems in congress in the 1940s, the 1950s, as a group, theyre really kind of serving an apprenticeship. They are slowly working there way into positions of influence and seniority. Theyre serving longer careers. By tend of this period, some of them are moving into leadership positions. Or at least further up the leadership rupg. So Margaret Chase smith, she comes into the house via the widows mandate. She succeeded her husband, colli clyde, and theres a special election thats held. She serves in the house for about nine years and has a very influential career. She manages to get on the Naval Affairs committee which was a plum assignment. Prior to the reorganization of the armed forces in the late 1940s, the house had a Naval Affairs committee and a military affairs committee. Naval affairs, if youre from maine with the bigship yards was one of the assignments that you would really look out for. And it gave her really a position of influence and allowed her to speak on the topic of women and military service. In 1948, shes a prime mover behind a bill that helped integration the armed forces and give women a permanent role in the uniformed forces. She leaves the house the following year to several in the u. S. Senate. Shes best known in the public mind as the one of the very few brave senators who opposed mccarthy, joe mccarthy and his tactics very early on. She gave a speech called the declaration of conscious in june 1950 where she opposed his tactics very eloquently. And she goes on to serve a very long career to the early 1970s. But shes one of the women who is pushing the story of women in congress into a new era. If youre interesting in this topic, learn pore by going to our website which is history of house. Gov. The women in Congress Publication along with objects and art a facts that we dont have here on the table today is available on the site. This is the first of a to of had part program. You can view this and other american artifact programs on our website cspan. Org history. Each week, American History tvs american act artifacts visits museumes and historic places. Up next, we take you inside the house wing of the u. S. Capitol to learn about the history of women in congress. In his second of a ctopart program, we continue the story beginning in the 1940s with republican congresswoman claire booth lewis. Im sara elliott, occurater for the house of representatives. That means i take care of a lot of the art a facts, the artwork, the objects that document the houses a rich heritage. Im matt wasniewski, the historian of the house. My job is to collect buy graphical information on members, to gather data and historic listes and to conduct oral histories. We answer reference questions in our office that come from on the hill and off the hill and we try to tell the story of the house which is this big, Old Institution in a way people connect with us at a human level. So we do that through telling biographical stories or clips from oral histories that give people kind of a human sense of very large institutions. And today we thought we would try and do that with you by telling you about the history of women in congress which is a hour that dates back to the early 20th century. This is a nifty piece of campaign asimera. Its for claire booth liuce and its handy. Use this column when voting for Clare Boothe Luce and theres an arrow to make sure youre pulling the levers to reelection cl rare booth luce. She was someone who was well known for the general public, her career really had started as a writer and editor. She was a managing editor for vanity fair magazine in the 1930s and she eventually married henry luce, the founder of time and life and fortune magazines. So she had a very prominent background before she came to congress and she was elected to two terms in the 1940s. She originally had been a supporter of the new deal and then she turned against fdrs domestic policies. But by the time she comes to congress, she really is one of the more eloquent spokes people in terms of criticisms of fdrs wartime management. Shes not an isolatition, though. Shes an internationalist. She also is a woman who supports the equal rights amendment and an enhanced role for women in the military services and outside the home. So shes something of a feminist, as well. From america, this congressional delegation comes to the western front on a democratic commission. Mrs. Luce, the congresswoman play wright and Sparkman Costello and thomas serve on the military affairs committee. The group travels towards the battle line, opening american weapons and supplies powering the bush push to the rhine. La over newly liberated areas behind the lines, on their return home, they will make their report to the american nation. She serves two terms, this would have been in her 1944 reelection. But about that time, she suffering a personal tragedy. Her own daughter is killed in a car wreck near stanford, where she was going to college. And with that, she kind of lost a lot of her zeal for public offers. She retires from the house at the end of the 79th congress in 1947. She certainly would have been known by the general public as two very prominent women with both in a political sense, but also in a cultural sense, as well. This is one of my favorite buttons in the collection. It says continue with ya canutsen. Matt talks about the transition of generations of women and how that relates to whats going on in the nation at large. Coya in some ways pays the price of the changing view of women in the 1940s and 50s after world war ii ends. This is a photograph of her with her husband, andy, in front of andys hold and he play aes prominent role in how her career sends. Yeah. Up to this point in the story, theres so many women who come to congress through that connection to their husband, through some kind of familial connection. And coya loser her congressional career because of that familial connection. She came up through the first of all, shes from she represented a district in minnesota for two terms. But she came up through the Democratic Farmer Labor Party in minnesota. And that is how she got her political start. She served in the minnesota house of representatives and had a very promising political career. In 19 r50 4, she decides to run for a u. S. House seat. She goes against the wishes of democratic farmer labor leaders who are not happy with the fact that she doesnt want the stay in the statehouse or representatives. So she has to fund her own Political Campaign and she does so. She wins election. Her husband, andy, at this point and this was a strained marriage to begin with. He grows jealous of her political success. And so coya in the house has a very successful career. She gets on the agriculture committee. Its a very promising career. One of the things that she does, because of her background as a teacher, she wants to push for a federal student loan program. And she manages, after the politic neck crisis, to slip in a provision, an amendment to the National Defense education act in 1958 that establishes federal student loans. So she knows the legislative ropes and pusser her agendas. Unfortunately she runs for election that year and democratic farmer laborer operatives sabotage her campaign. They write a letter that they get her husband, andy, to sign. And the letter says that their marriage is suffering because shes far from home and the intimates that there might be some kind of unkward relationship with a staffer that she has. And the tag line on the letter is coya, come home. She essentially loses the reelection because of the negative publicity because of that letter. That really comes back to hurt the campaign. In the 1958 midterms, shes the only incumbent democrat to lose her seat and her career comes to a close. She later tries to rung for congress again, but shes unsuccessful. Julia butler hanson of Washington State is definitely one of the women in this era who is pushing if ball along for women. She becomes a very influential member of the house. And her background was actually as a member, a long time member of the Washington Statehouse of representatives. So shes got a lot of legislative experience. She was a prime mover behind establishing the fairy stm in the state. So she has a lot of legislative experience. And shes not your typical freshman when shes elected in 1960 in a special election. She very quickly moves into a position of influence. She gets the seat on the appropriations committee. In the house. And by the mid 1960s, she vies for a subcommittee chairmanship, one of the socalled carpals of the appropriations committee. And she competes for a seat of the interior and related agencies subcommittee. And its a tough competition, but she wins out. The chairman of the committee, chairman of the full committee, decides, well, he tested her in getting the chairmanmanship and cease going to test her as a new chairman. So the first time she comes to the full committee with her bill for interior and related agencies, which is hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, its bag appropriations big, he says to her, julia, this is great, but youve got to cut 2 million out of it. And she kind of look at him and said yes, mr. Chairman. She left. And she went back to her subcommittee and she comes back a couple of days later to the full committee. And she says, mr. Chairman, i want to report back to you, i found 2. 5 million to cut out of the bill. Julia, thats just wonderful. Wherever did you find it . Right out of your district, mr. Chairman. And he never bothered her again. Martha griffith, who was a power in her own right, said of julia hanson that she knew how to exercise power better than any woman who she had seen in any legislature and coming from martha griffith, thats high praise. So here we have a campaign postcard of Martha Griffins who was one of the influential women members from the 1950s into the 1970s. She represented a michigan district and like some of the earlier women here, like julia butler hanson, she has got a lot of experience before she ever comes to congress. Choose a lawyer, she serves as a judge in michigan and shes elected to the house in 1954. She comes in in 1955. And she, too, very quickly moves into positions of influence. Shes the first woman after a number of women in congress had campaigns with the speaker to get a seat on the very exclusive ways and means committee, the tax committee. And from that position, she really weighs in on a lot of issues affecting women monetarily, but shes probably best known as the mother of the equal rights amendment. Every year, she reintroduced the equal rights amendment which has a history in the house, in Congress Going back to 1923. And the bill was just stuck in the Judiciary Committee and it never came out. And she was a lawyer by training. She was very critical of the Supreme Court. She didnt think the Supreme Court was ever going to decide a case that would make women truly equal with men. So she got behind the equal rights amendment. Shi gets it on out of the Judiciary Committee with a discharge petition in the he shall 1970s. Passes the house, stalls in the senate. And she comes back and does it again in the following coming. Finally, e. R. A. Passes in 1972 and it goes out to the states. It is never approved as a constitutional amendment, but Martha Griffiths was really among a core group of women wab a prime mover behind that. The other thing she does, the the 1964 civil rights action. She was very interested in pushing an aumt through that would give women equal rights in terms of employment. But she was very cagey about how she did it. She knew the chairman of the house rules committee, howard smith, who was a committed segregationist, that he wanted to sink the 64 civil rights act. And she caught wind that he was going to introduce an argument that would introduce the word sex into an amendment that would provide for equal opportunity, equal economic opportunity, title seven of the civil rights act. So she held because because she knew smith could bring a lot of southern votes with him. And smith intended this as a gimmick. He gets on to the floor and talks about how he wants to insert the word sex into this amendment. And theres laughter and giggles around the chamber and Martha Griffiths followed smith up on behalf of the amendment and she said if there was any need to prove that we need this amendment, the laughing and the guffaws prior to me getting up here, they proved it. And the chamber fell silent. Eventually, that amendment in title 7 was included in the civil rights action. So, again, another key legislative action by martha griffith. This is a Campaign Poster for Shirley Chisolm. I love this because it says unbought and unboxed. But its not for her congressional campaign. Its for Something Else entirely. Yeah. Its actually for a president ial campaign that she waged in 1972 and she went to the Democratic Convention and rounded up about 10 of the votes. Shes the first avenue can American Woman to run for president and she did it on a shoe string budget and had a very admirable showing. But she had a National Reputation well before 1972. Shes elected to congress in 1968 from a district that encompasses much of brooklyn. And she becomes very prominent in that campaign. Her opponent in the general election, on the republican republican ticket was james farmer. One of the great civil rights leaders. And theres this back and forth between these two and farmer really runs on the idea that, you know, brooklyn needs a maintain in congress. And surelily chisolm, boy, she fires back. Her campaign scene is like the one expressed on this poster, unbought and unbossed. Im fighting Shirley Chisolm, im here to be your congresswoman. So she is very much she embraces this advocacy role. Shes elected. She becomes the first avenue can American Woman congress in 1969. She serve aes career that in a lot of ways is symbolic. Shes a first. She helped establish the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971. And she also gains a very prominent committee assignment. Shes the first avenue can American Woman to serve on the house rules committee. Which is the committee that pulls legislation on to the floor. So she had her hands on a lot of important developments in the house. But she also had a National Reputation. Sles someone who is very outspoken which represents a lot of the women who are coming into congress at this point. Herr colleague from new york was bella absug who served in the 1970s and would later go on and try to become elected mayor of new york unsuccessfully. But these are two women who spoke their minds. Shirley chisolm was originally a assigned to the agency committee. She went to the leadership and she was told by the speaker of the house, be a good soldier. So she went out on to the house floor and she started saying things like ive got a lot more veterans in any district than i do trees. Shes assigned to the Veterans Affairs committee. These were not people who were going to sit and be quiet either in terms of the expectation for freshmen generally or for women members. So they really kind of challenged the system. This reflects a lot of whats going on in Wider Society with the womens Rights Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, that women are challenging these realize that had been carved out for them 1k3 really trying to participate in a much more important and fuller way in u. S. Society. And Shirley Chisolm certainly represents that. One of the things that we did in the last ten years was commission portraits of some of the pioneers in the house and that certainly included chilly chisolm. That portrait deliberately depicts a lot of what matt was talking about about her, that she had a national agenda, she took on an evacueesy role. So this portrait of her is in a few ways a traditional congressional portrait. It highlights the figure, the subject who is there, but the capital is present, too, so she know where she is. But it very much makes the capitol smaller than her stature nationally. She immediately was taking on those roles. Its also a very assertive portrait. She is looking at the viewer and gesture heing at the viewer. In order to do that. We sought out artists who we felt could tell a story very quickly and that include Childrens Book illustrator and this particular portrait was done by an internationally Award WinningChildrens Book illustrator. Its become one of the portraits that is the most be loved by children who visit the capital. They look at it and they can immediately see what is going on and its a piece of history thats a great thing for kits to hear and for tour guide toes be telling when they bring kids around to see this. One of the things happening with chisolm, too, in this era, a lot of the bem who are elected to congress increasingly have prior legislative experience. She served in the new york legislature, the new York State Legislature and she had that bl. A lot of the women who are coming in with her have that kind of legislative experience already. And that makes a tremendous difference when you get into the latt latter decades of the 20th century. Because youve got women who are experienced running campaigns and theyre stronger candidates. And that is part of the reason why we see the growth of women in congress, particularly in the 1990s. When we go from what had never been more than, really, 20 women at any one time to 40, 350, 60, 70, 80 women serving in any given congress. These are just a few of the hundreds of campaign buttons