Learn about the history of women in congress. Of a second of a two part program we begin the story beginning in the 19 with Republican Congress one woman claire recluse. On the curator for the house of representatives. That means i take a care of a lot of the artifacts, artwork objects that document the houses rich heritage. And that was a risky on the horse historian of the house and my job is to collect biographical information on members, to gather data, and historicless, to conduct oral histories. We answer reference questions in our office that come from on the hill and off the hill. We try to tell the story of the house which is very big Old Institution in a way that people can connect with it 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. A very large institution. Today, we thought we try to do that with you about telling you about the history of women in congress which is the history that dates back to the early 20th century. This is a nifty pace piece of of campaign if amara. Its for clear booth loose, Reelection Campaign and its quite handy. It even tells you what to do. Use this column when voting for clare booth loose. How you go into the voting booth, make sure youre pulling the leather lovers to reelect her. Clare booth loose wouldve been the republican counterpart of douglas. She was someone who was well known to the public, her career really had started as a writer and editor. She was a managing editor for vanity fair magazine and the 1930s and she had eventually later in the 1930s married henry loose, the founder of time and life and fortune magazines. So she had a very prominent background when she came to congress. She was elected to two terms in the 1940s. She originally had been a supporter of the new deal and then she turned against fdr is domestic policies but by the time to come to congress, she is really one of the more eloquent spokespeople in terms of criticisms of fdrs wartime management. Shes not and isolation as, shes an internationalist. Shes also a woman who supports the equal rights amendment and enhanced school 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 mission. Mrs. Loos, the congressman woman playwright and thomas serve on the house of representatives for military affairs committee. The group travels towards the battle line observing american weapons and supplies powering the big push towards the ryan. Im the ryan river off to look over new newly liberated areas behind the lines, on their way home they will make the report the american mission. She served two terms. This wouldve been in her 1944 reelection. About that time, she surfaces suffers a personal tragedy. Her only daughter is killed in a car wreck near stanford where she is going to college. With that, she kind of lost a lot of her zeal for public office. She retires from the house at the end of the 79th congress in 1947. She and Allen Douglas would have overlap for a term but they certainly would be known by the general public as to very prominent women, both in a political sense and kind of in a cultural sense as well. This is one of my favorite buttons in the collection. Continue with cleric newton, minute first congresswoman. The transition between generations of women and how that relates to whats going on in the nation at large. Clare in some ways pays the price of the changing view of women in the 19 forties and fifties after world war ii ends. This is a photograph of her andy in front of andes hotel and he plays a prominent role and how her career ands. Up to this point in the story there are so many women who come to congress through that connection to their husband, through some kind of familial connection. Clare newton loses her career because of that familial connection. She came up through, first of all she represented a district in minnesota for two terms. But she came up through the democratic farmer labor partner in minnesota. Thats how she got her political star. She served in the minnesota house of representatives and had a very promising political career. In 1954, 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 to stay in the state house of representatives. 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. So Claire Newton in the house has a very successful career. She gets in the agricultural committee, its a very promising career. One of the things she does because of her background as a teacher, she wants to push for a Federal School loan program. She manages after the sputnik crisis to slip in a provision, an amendment, to the National Defense education act in 1958 that establishes federal student loans. She knows the legislative ropes and really pushes her agenda. Unfortunately, she runs for election that year and democratic farmer labor operatives sabotage her campaign. They write a letter that they get her husband to sign up and the letter says that their marriage is suffering because shes far from home and it into mates there might be some sort of untoward relationship with a staffer that she has. The tagline on the letter is coy a come home. She essentially loses the reelection because of the negative publicity thats generated by that letter. A lot of us because of the social expectation is still prevalent. That a womans place was in this domestic sphere inside the home. That really comes back to hurt the campaign. And a 1958 midterms, she is the only incumbent democrats lose her seat. Her career comes to close. She later tries to run for congress a but shes unsuccessful. Julia Butler Hansen of Washington State is definitely one of the women in this era who is pushing the ball along for women in terms of this apprenticeship that theyre serving as a group. She becomes a very influential member of the house. Her background was actually as a member a longtime member of the Washington State house of representatives. Scott a lot of legislative experience before she ever comes to capitol hill. She was the chair of a couple of different kind of committees in the state legislator. She served quite often as speaker. One of the things she did in washington was that she was a prime mover behind establishing the ferry system in the united states. Scott a lot of legislative experience. Shes not your typical freshman when shes elected in 1960 and a special election. She quickly moves into a position of influence. She gets a seat on the Appropriations Committee in the house and by the mid 1960s, she vies for a subcommittee chairman ship, one of the so this is one of the cardinals of the committee. She commits competes for a seat on the interior and related agencies subcommittee. Its a tough competition but she wins out. But the chairman of the committee, and then by the name of george man macron of texas, he said he tested or, and hes gonna tester as a new chairman. So the first time she comes to the full committee with her bill for in terrier related agencies which is hundreds of millions of dollars. Its a big appropriation he says to her julia this is great but you gotta cut 2 Million Dollars out of it. And she kind of looked at him and says yes mister chairman and she left. And she went back to her subcommittee. She comes back a couple of days later with the full committee and says mr. Chairman i want to report back to you. I found 2. 5 Million Dollars to cut out of the bill. Julia, thats just wonderful . Wherever to define it . Right out of your district mister chairman. And he never bothered her again. Martha griffiths who was a power in her own right, set of Juliette Hansen that she knew how to exercise power than any woman who she had ever seen in any legislature. Coming from Martha Griffiths, thats high praise. So here we have a campaign postcard of Martha Griffiths who was one of the influential woman members from the 19 fifties into the 1970s. She represented in michigan district unlike some of the earlier women here. Shes got a lot of experience before she ever comes to congress. Shes a lawyer, she serves as a judge in michigan and shes elected to the house and 1954 she comes in a 1955. She too very quickly moves into positions of influence. Shes the first woman after a number of women in congress have campaigned with the speaker to get a seat on the very exclusive ways and Means Committee of the tax committee. From the opposition 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 and Congress Going back to 1923. The bill was just stuck in the Judiciary Committee and it never came out. 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 and movement. She gets it out of the Judiciary Committee with a discharge petition in the early 1970s. It passes the house, stalls in the senate and then she comes back and does it again in the following congress. Finally, here are a passes in 1972 knit goes out to the states. It is never approved as a constitutional amendment but Martha Griffiths was really among a core group of women who are behind that. The other thing that she does during the 1964 civil rights act, she was very interested in pushing and amendments through that would give women equal rights in terms of employment. But she was very cagey about how she did it. She knew that the chairman of the house rules committee, howard smith who was a committed segregationist that he wanted to sink the 64 civil rights act. She cannot wind that he was going to introduce an amendment that would introduce sex, the word sex into an amendment that would provide for equal opportunity, equal economic opportunity, title seven of the civil rights. Act she held back because she knew that smith could come back a lot of southern votes with him. Smith intended this simply is a gimmick to sink the civil rights act. Well, he gets out of the floor and talks about how he wants to insert the words sacks in the disenchantment and theres laughter and giggles around the chamber. People gone. Martha griffiths falls smith up on behalf of the amendment and she said, if there was any need to prove that we need this amendment, the laughing in the gut fine they proved it. And the chamber fell silent. And eventually that amendment, and title seven was included in the civil rights act. So again, another key legislative action by Martha Griffiths. This is a Campaign Poster for surely chisholm, the first african woman in congress. I love this because im im boss. But its not for her Congressional Campaign its actually for something else. Its actually for a president ial campaign that she waged in 1972. She went to the Democratic Convention and actually rounded up about 10 of the votes. Its the first African American woman to run for president. She did it on a shoestring budget and had a very admirable showing. She had a reputation, a National Reputation well before 1972. Shes elected to congress in 1968 from a district that encompasses much of brooklyn. She becomes very prominent in that campaign. Her opponent in the general election on the republican liberal rub kabul authentic it was james farmer, one of the great civil rights leaders. There is this back and forth between these two and farmer really runs on the idea that brooklyn needs a man in congress. Surely chisholm fires back at her campaign same as like the one expressed on this poster. And boston. Fighting surely chisholm im here to beer congresswoman. She embraces this advocacy role. Shes elected, she becomes the first african woman in congress and 1969 she serves a career that is all in a lot of ways symbolic. Shes the first, she helps establish the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 and then she also gains a very prominent shes the first african woman to serve on the house rules committee, which pulses legislation on the floor. She had her hands on a lot of important developments in the house. But she also had a National Reputation. She was someone who was very outspoken which represents a lot of the women who are coming into congress at this point. Her colleague from new york city was bell absent who served for a couple terms in houston in 19 seventies and later try to go on to be elected mayor of new york unsuccessfully. But these were two people who spoke her mind whether was about Committee Assignments that they didnt agree with. Surely chisholm was assigned originally to the Agriculture Committee and she went to the leadership and she was told by the speaker of the house be a good soldier. So she went out onto the house floor she started saying things like i got a lot more veterans in my district that i do trees. So she was a sign of the Veterans Affairs committee. These were not people who are gonna sit and be quiet, either in terms of the expectation a freshman generally or for women members. They really kind of challenge the system and thats really reflects a lot of whats going on and a society with regards to the womens rights movies in the 19 sixties and seventies. Women are challenging these roles that have been carved out for them and really trying to participate in a much more important and fuller way in u. S. Society. And surely chisholm certainly represents that. One of the things that we did in the last ten years was commissioned portraits of some of the pioneers in the house and thats certainly included surely chisholm. Reporter we did have surely chisholm very much deliberately depicts a lot of what matt was talking about about her. That she had a national agenda, she took on an advocacy 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 to see you know where she is. A very mix the capital smaller than her stature nationally. She very immediately was taking on those walls. Its also very assertive portrait. Shes really looking at the viewer and she is in fact gesturing to the viewer. In order to do that, we sought out artists who could really tell a story very simply. That included Childrens Books illustrators. This particular portrait was done by someone who is a nationally children awarded checked Childrens Book illustrator. Interestingly, its become one of the portraits that is the most beloved by children who visit the capital. They look at and immediately they can see whats going on. Its a piece of history that is a great thing for kids to here and for tour guides to be telling them when they bring kids around to see this. One of the things thats happening with chisholm too. Shes a great example. And this area, which you really call the modern era, for the 1970s up. A lot of the women who are elected to congress increasingly have prior legislative experience. She served in the new york legislator the new york state legislature. She had a background. A lot of the woman were coming in with her have that kind of legislative experience already. That makes a tremendous difference when you get into the latter decades of the 20th century, the eighties, the nineties. You have women who are experienced running campaigns and their stronger candidates. Its why we see the growth of women in congress, particular the 1990s, when we go from what had never been more than really, 20 women at one time to 40 50, 60 70, 80 women serving and any given congress. But these are just a few of the hundreds of Campaign Buttons that we have in the house collection. I love seeing them altogether, matt and i we often say we put a human face on the house. To give people individual stories to latch onto and understand, each of these women jeannette rankin, lindy boggs, julia hansen, patsy mink, have fascinating stories. One of the things that i love is seeing them altogether, and seeing this great richness and variety of women putting themselves forward to serve their country in congress. I am deeply impressed by all the women who ran for congress and all the women who have served there. One of my favorite is probably lynn need dogs. Lindy boggs comes into congress in 1973 on a special election and its interesting because its the time period where we see more and more women who have political careers in their own right who are elected to the house. She follows that old windows mandate route. Her husband available odds have represented and new orleans senator district for almost three decades. He had risen to become majority leader in the house, and many people expected him to become speaker of the house. And, in october of 1972, during a Campaign Trip to alaska, his aircraft disappeared and he was presumed dead. The seat was later vacated, and ladybugs was prevailed on to run for the seat. Will she had four years, been her husbands eyes and ears in the district she ran his campaigns back home, particularly as he moved up the leadership ladder if the house. To his office and his agenda intimately. She came into congress, it was unlike the surely chasms of she kind of evinced a quiet determination to push womens rights along. There is a great story that she has in her memoirs of getting in assignments of the banking and currency committee. There was a bill before the banking and currency committee, that would provide equal access to credit. And when the bill was being marked up in committee, the draft came around and she was looking at it. It said, equal access to credit, without racial age veteran status. Discrimination. But it said nothing about sex or marital status. She had just become a window, and had to have all of the finances transferred over to her. So this was fresh in her mind. And so she quietly took a pencil, and inserted the phrase, sex or marital status, got up, walk to the copies made a photocopy for everyone on the day as, handed it out and said knowing everybody on the comedian as i do, i know this was just an oversight. I would assume that my ambition here will be wholeheartedly greeted. And with that, the Committee Voted Unanimously for the change in the amendment. Thats how ladybugs worked. She was a really institutionalist them, and someone who cares very much about the history of the house. And loved to tell visitors about it, and wanted folks to know about the richness of the history of this place. We are indeed a nation that is a majority of women. We also are a nation where the majority of women who are heads of households, with children under six years of age, are in poverty. As women started getting power, and a second wave of feminism got going in the 1970s. Something happened that was kind of wonderful, super sisters. It happened in 1978 when a little girl in new york collected baseball cards, and was pretty young, i think she was eight or ten years old. And her mom was a schoolteacher and she said, how come there are no baseball cars were girls on them. . And her mom quite rightly said, i dont know if thats crazy. She developed a series of 70 some cards of important women, mostly present, but some past, and got a grant from new york state to produce them. And they became trading cards, and theyre actually very popular, 15,000 sets of the seventies on cards were sold, and of those quite of you are women in congress. Its just a few where we have a full set of super sisters, we have a full set of all the women in Congress Representative super sisters. The front set images of them, and the backs. This is surely chisholms. Have stats. No rbi,s or anything like that. Birth, home and little bits about each person. Theyre wonderful because some of them have quotations, from these women. What they are accomplishments are, how they got there. They became a wonderful piece of 1970s civic engagement. And i love looking at them, not just for that but because some of them have some really fantastic hair. And those cards really coincide with a trend really that begins late 1970s, and then thats what women are organizing and empowering themselves to move further up the congressional leadership ladder. More women are being elected to congress. In 1977, both republican and Democratic Women come together and found the congressional womens caucus, which has a very successful legislative agenda pushing womens specific issues in the 19 eighties in 19 nineties. In the 19 eighties you begin to see the development of, a Political Action committees, that fun when candidates that have been one of the things that held women candidates back quite a bit, it was money for expensive campaigns. And then in the 19 nineties, we began to see the greater numbers of women elected. The 1992 campaign, the socalled year of the woman, sends almost two dozen women into the house. This is only a beginning. These women know, how many delegated experienced abled and prepared women there are in their states, and in other states. It is our job together, to make sure that they think about running, that we get them to accept the challenge of running, and then we would support them through that race, to victory. Because this is what you can get, if you work at it. Thank you every election after that, every cycle, the number begins to take up slowly. And as theres more women elected in the house, they get better Committee Assignments, they get more diverse range of committee Committee Assignments. , and they move up into leadership. And, right down to the modern era where we have Kathy Mcmorris rogers, who is the chair of the republic conference. And nancy pelosi, who was the former speaker and its true that we could include. So the transition that women have made in that last time period has been, one of great expansion. And you know when you look at it and go back to 1917 with jeannette rankin. Its been a span of 298 women almost 300 women, up to this point. Its a long story. applause noise you can see this and all other american artifacts programs on our website, cspan. Org slash history. Weeknights this month were featuring american tv programs whats available every weekend on cspan three. On thursday will look at civil war objects, historian harold holder and valerie pail each of history and the you know what historians society, held a series of online talks this summer about artifacts featured in their joint publication. The civil war and 50 objects. And the first of four of these programs, we show tonight, they discuss objects related to soldiers uniforms, and accoutrements. Watch thursday beginning at eight eastern, and enjoy American History tv, this week and every week on cspan three. Up next, a discussion on the role of women in politics since the 1920s. Behind the scenes and elected representatives. Historians talk about suffragists, new deal era appointees, and politicians barbara jordan, patsy bank, and nancy pelosi. American history tv moderator at the source annual meeting,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.