Years before women had the right to vote fashlly and in a way shes really a bridge from the suffrage movement, to women attaining full political rights. She was active in a National Womens suffrage organization, and she helped women get the right to vote not only in montana, but a couple of states west of the mississippi and she runs in 1916. Shes elected to one of montanas two at large districts and part of her platform is that shes a pacifist. Well, shes sworn into the house on april 2, 1917, and the house has come into a special session, extraordinary session because the president that night, Woodrow Wilson delivers a message to Congress Asking for a declaration of war against germany. Its the u. S. Entry into world war i and rankin, when that vote is held is one of a group of about 50 members who votes against u. S. Intervention in world war i. She served a term in the house. She was on the womens suffrage committee. She was on the Public Lands Committee which was an important assignment for a woman from montana with so much of the lands being held by the federal govern am so it was an important position. She serves only a term in the house and she tries to run for senate from montana. She doesnt get the republican nomination, but she runs as an independent. Its an uphill battle and she gets about a fifth of the votes, though, and then she goes back to private life and shes involved in womens rights issues and shes a driving force behind the maternity and infancy act which the house eventually passes in 1921 and then shes also involved in International Peace organizations. Fast forward to 1940. She runs for congress again, and she runs on a platform to keep the u. S. Out of the war in europe and shes faced on december 8, 1941 with a tremendous vote. This is the day after pearl harbor. Fdr has come to the house chamber. Hes addressed a joint chamber of congress. Yesterday december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The senate goes back to its chamber and very quickly unanimously very quickly passes a war resolution and the house begins debating and the house members know that janet rankin is a pacifist and she is going to vote her conscience. So we have some oral histories of people who are in the chamber who recall members going up to rankin and asking her to vote present, dont vote no and she votes her conscience in the end and opposes the war and shes the lone vote into world war ii with the declaration of war against japan. That ended her political career. She goes back into private life and but shes a force in the Antiwar Movement really for another couple of decades and a remarkable career. In 2004 we commissioned a new portrait of janette rankin. She was a person who is so important in the rights and representation of congress. So when we commissioned it, we wanted to show what it was like to come into congress as the first woman when women dont have the right to vote nationally and because it was the 20th century because its 1916 and 1917 when she is elected and enters congress, there is a newspaper coverage of it and because shes a woman and something of a novelty, there is a lot of newspaper coverage of what shes wearing so we know exactly what she was wearing and the portrait itself shows her in that Navy Blue Dress and we know she was wearing a big hat and we know exactly what the Washington Post said that morning and the post has her in those clothes holding the Washington Post. One of the interesting things is shes wearing that hat and placed in the portrait just outside the chamber doors, if we were to enter that space with her, she would have to turn her right and enter the camber, at which point she would take home her hat, would she wear a mat, but is she not a member, but a a manage of congress more than is her gender. So she takes it off and all of those thing i want want to put in the port raft rat and the thakt if thakt she was other interests, pass facism, suffrage and all of the issues important to her and it was the lonely spot to be in to be the only woman and to take her to the stance of conscience that put her at odds with other people. Janette rankin was something of an outlier and she comes from a suffrage background, but if you look at the first two decades of women who were elected and theres roughly 20 women who were elected to congress from rankin into the mid 1930s, a good number of these people dont have a political background. They havent held elective office, and instead, they are a large number of them are widows who succeed their husbands in congress and this would be described as the widows mandate which is the route for women in the congress and this persisted up through the 1960s and even into the 1970s. A large number of women followed their husbands or maybe they had a prominent political father who they followed into congress. So there was a real kind of famili familial connection and that wasnt rank ins experience, and it was for this woman here who were looking at in this picture on the roster and this wonderful picture of edith norres rogers. Rogers was a widow from represent represent district from northern, massachusetts and she success seeded her husband john roger, which was a high Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs commity and he actually had a lot of experienced ministering his committee and his personal office. She knew what his legislative agenda was, and one of the things that happened as Senior Member passes away like, that the house has to have a special election. No one can be appointed to the house and depending on state laws that election has to happen in a fairly short amount of time. Local Party Leaders would often turn to the widow and say will you run for the partial term because you have name recognition. Rogers is going to be on the ballot. And the expectation was that the wife would serve out this term and then she would retire and the Party Leaders would find a suitable male candidate to succeed her, but rogers had different ideas. She actually ends up staying in the house for 35 years. She is still the longest serving woman in the house and she was for a long are very long time the longest woman serving in congress and she was surpassed by barbara mckull ski who has House Service and senate service, but she not only had longevity. She was very influential in terms of Veterans Affairs. Prior to her experience in the house she had volunteered for the red cross and shed become an advocate for servicemen returning from world war i and when republicans in the 1940s briefly regained the majority in the 80th congress, she becomes one of the very first women to chair a major congressional commit. She chairs the Veterans Affairs committee in the 80th congress and then again in the 83rd congress when control flipflopped back and forth between democrats and republican. Shes a republican. Here experience, and you see a couple of pictures here with her. In this one shes having a radio debate with mary norton of new jersey and they become the deens of women in congress and mary norton is a democrat and she came up through politics . Jersey city, new jersey help her mentor was hank i am the law, and he promoted her career and he comes into the house in 1925 the same year as edith Norris Rogers. The interesting thing about her is that she, like rogers and other women from the generation pursue a strategy of of gaining power in the house by assimilating. They didnt push womens issues, per se. They really tried to minimize gender differences and norton was extremely successful moving up the Committee Leadership ladder. She chaired four congressional committees by the time she retired from the house in the early 1950s and one of them was the Labor Committee during the new deal which was a Major Committee and her signal piece of legislation was the fair labor standards act of 1938 which set a 40your workweek and set a minimum wage and that was just the crowning moment of my house experience. Im prouder of getting that bill through the house than anything else ive ever done, but she was a nononsense legislator, and she was on the house floor and a bill was being debated and a male member turned to her and said i yield to the gentle lady of new jersey. She cut him off and she said im a member of congress and i will proceed on that basis and she did. Her career was a mofsh louarvel moving up through the ranks through seniority. One of my favorite things about rogers was how she used her public persona and she begins right from the get go. This is 1926 when she debates mary norton and its a radio debate and clearly they know it will be photographed and its going to be a big deal, so mary norton is wearing her fantastic fur santa claus coat and edith Norris Rogers is in widows weeds, and shes wearing this black veil and shes still officially mourning her husband and it was also very mriticily, and this is from her first general election and in here she says over and over again things like always on the job, reelect mrs. Rogers on her own record of achievements and inside it says some wonderful stuff, knows the ropes and gives prompt, Efficient Service and she talks a lot about what shes done for veterans and shes not above saying she is still mrs. John jacob rogers and this is the primary season in september. So shes very wise in the ways of doing this and a little later after shes been reelected a few times. She is often photographeding things that are interested and here and other members of congress are teefting out weird, riding lawn mowerlooking tank right out the capitol. She often would do that and she also was photographed she was called the most error minded female of congress and she would fly back and forth to places in open airplanes. She found it very convenient and she enjoyed it. So there are photographs of her with an aviator cap and aviator goggles heading off into the sky. So she did some wonderful, wonderful thing, but as matt has said she also was very much an assimilationist in the way of that first generation of women in congress and here is a photo of some of the early women of congress at the start of the 71st congress and so there are lots of them and you can see that theyre very businesslike in their attire, but nonetheless, it looks like edith norris has some flowers, but this represents not all of the women who were in congress that congress, but lots of them and you can see they are, nonetheless, being photographed and treated by the press as an entity and how thats going to get played out would change over the next couple of decades as people try to figure out what do we talk about with we talk about women in congress. This is an interesting photo because it points out, you can go through this and look at the way the women were elected to congress and in the front row far left is Pearl Oldfield who had succeeded her husband who was a Senior Member who passed away and then edith Norris Rogers and ruth pratt who was elected in her own right and not with any familiar connection. She represented the Silk Stocking district in new york city and then on the far side here is Ruth Hannah Mccormick of illinois. Her father was marcus hanna who was the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th century and constantly butted heads with William Jennings brian which is interesting because William Jennings brian, his daughter, Ruth Brian Owen is on this side of the picture and we actually have a press account when these two were sworn into the house in 1929 that they came down the center aisle together arm in arm and wowed the members and the press because here are two daughters of avowed political enemies. If we go back into the picture just to finish out, this is mary norton of new jersey and then this woman here is one of the interesting characters of this time period, Florence Kahn of california who represented a large portion of San Francisco and her husband julius was the chairman of the military Affairs Committee and like edith rogers she was another woman who was very involved in her husbands political career. When he passed away she was asked to run for the National Election and she stayed on for more than a decade and shes the first jewish woman elected to congress. Shes also the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious Appropriations Committee and shes responsible for steering a lot of funds into the bay area to develop things like the bay bridge connecting San Francisco and oakland and then also the Alameda Naval air station. She sat on the military Affairs Committee panel, too, and we have a portrait of her in the collection, as well. We do. We have a wonderful portrait of her. Shes standing in her district, and actually right near where she lived in now what is now parkland is behind her the view that you would see if you were standing there today is of the Golden Gate Bridge and the marin headwins and there is a little, bitty in the painting, but enormous in real owe live there,s a lot in there. One of of the interesting things, hear figure is dark can black any the exactly accurate and that is how she des and presented her. She was so good with the press and at one line quips there was no one who was better. A reporter once asked her how do you have legislative success getting on to these committees and without missing a beat she said sex appeal. When she first came into the house leadership didnt want to put her in the committees that her husband was on. She did not get the military Affairs Committee assignment right away. Instead, she was put on to the indiana, fairs committee. She represented San Francisco, urban district so she went out and told the press the only indians i have in my district are in front of cigar shops and she went after the leadership, very shortly they came around and put her on the committees that she uponed. One of the artifacts that we have that im particularly fond of is this one. Its a letter from j. Edgar hoover to congresswoman kahn and the important bougpart of this dear mother kahn and its an odd phrasing and she was known as the mother of the fbi and so that was often how he referred to her. So this is a fascinating piece of a little sort of lobbying and playing up that affiliation and the close tie they had. By the time we get to the late 1930s or 1930s we were beginning to see a Different Group from the Pioneer Group of women coming to congress. World war ii kind of reshapes the role of women in societe 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 women could be forced back as a dom estimated role. One of the woman who proudly serves issing. She represented a district that encompassed, was married to melvin douglas, the actor, and she became involved in california politics and was a progressive and began to speak a lot on dehalf 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 and she wasnt what we would call a legislative entrepreneur, but she was a spokesperson for progressivist 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 speech maker. So heres a campaign bill or poster which advertises speaking engagement 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 decides to run for the u. S. Senate. And one of the candidates she ran against targets her as being a sympathizer, a red sympathizer which was a very potent attack in the early 1950s in the era of mccarthy, but she wins that nomination 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. She returned fire because in one Campaign Speech she labeled nixon as tricky dick which is a name that stuck with him for the rest of his political career, but that Campaign Tactic tying her to the red scare and the communist sympathies was potent because nixon won in a landslide and she leaves politics. This is a 1941 magazine coronet which hasnt survived into the 21st century, but you could see its a magazine aimed at women. There is a women posing in a Wedding Dress and theres something called the bachelor life on the cover. Expose of bachelor days and nights. Inside there is an article life. Inside, theres an article on women in congress. This is a great example of how the press didnt know where to have women in congress. These women are all business. And lots of the women that we know from long service, either doris rogers, all of these folks are here, and theyre very busy businesslike. But their described as wealthy or 53 or, you know, tiny brunette. Things like that that are placing them still in this its a tricky position for them to figure out. And this transitional generation, this is 1941, its going to continue to be a little bit complicated to figure out. Once the war ends, its going to get a little more complicated. And in this case, its kind of an interesting contrast here. Je Jessie Sumner is on the phone. And margaret is tending flowers. She has a fascinating long career. This is a visitor pass that is signed by Margaret Chase smith in 1941. Gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs of trips to the capital and this was perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women in congress at the time. This is a transitional time period. And Margaret Chase smith embodies that. Women in congress in the 1940s, 1950s, as a group, theyre really kind of serving an apprenticeship. Theyre working their way into positions of influence and seniority. Theyre Getting Better committee assignments. Theyre serving longer careers. By the end of this period, some of them are moving into leadership positions. Or at least further up the leadership rung. Margaret chase smith, she comes into the house via the widows mandate. Theres a special election that is held and she serves in the house for about nine years and she has an 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 committee. Naval affairs, if youre from maine, with the big shipyards was one of the things you would look out and it gave her a position of influence and allowed her to speak on the topic of women in military service. In 1948, shes a prime mover behind the bill that helps integrate the armed forces and give women a permanent role in the uniformed forces. She leaves the house the following year to serve in the u. S. Senate, runs for the senate, wins election. Shes probably best known in the public mind as one of the very few brave senators who opposed mccarthy. She gave a speech called the declaration of conscious in june 1950 where she opposed his tactics very eloquently. So she and she goes onto serve a very long career to the early 1970s. But shes one of the women who kind of is pushing the story of women in congress into a new era. If youre interested in this topic, you can learn more about going to our website and the women in Congress Publication along with objects and artifact that is we dont have here on the table today is available on the site. This was the first of a twopart program. You can view this and all other american Artifacts Program at our website. Cspan. Org history. Each week american artifacts visits museums and historic places. We take you inside the house wing of the u. S. Capitol to learn about the history of women in congress. In this second of a twopart program, we continue the story beginning in the 1940s with republican congresswoman clare boothe luce. Im the curator for the house of representatives and that means that i take care of a lot of the artifacts, the artwork, the objects, that document the houses ri