The history of women in American politics is just as long as that of the nation as a whole. Even in the days before the Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote, many tried hard to make a difference as best they could — and succeeded, not only by breaking glass ceilings and proving that women could handle the job but also by introducing important legislation, standing up for their fellow citizens' rights and much more.
Whether
they held office at the local and federal level, whether they were
appointed to the most high-profile jobs in politics or to a role many
would never hear about, and even if they merely ran and lost, each made
her mark. Some of them wielded their influence in the nation's earliest days
and others have only recently been elected to office. And, of course,
that history is still being written by many women who have yet to make
it to the history books.
It
would be impossible to sum up the complete role that women have played
in the history of American politics, especially considering the many
female activists and thinkers who, though excluded from public office by
nature of their gender, made a difference in the evolution of the
nation's governmental and political narrative.
But here, for Women's History Month and International Women's Day,
TIME takes a look back at 50 influential women — specifically, women
who ran for, were appointed to or married into a role in the U.S.
government — who have helped define the history of American civic life.
Bella Abzug, Congresswoman.Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Bella Abzug (1920-1998)
Daughter
to Russian Jewish immigrants, Abzug was a lawyer specializing in labor
and civil rights in 1950s and '60s New York. With the start of the
Vietnam War she became a vocal member of the anti-war movement. Once
elected to Congress, in 1971 she took a “people’s oath” (administered by
her fellow New Yorker, Shirley Chisholm) on the steps of the House
after taking the official congressional oath of office. Known for her
brash personality, she pushed for an end to the war, women’s rights and
the needs of underdogs. She was known for saying "This woman's place is
in the House—the House of Representatives."
Abigail Smith Adams wife of John Adams.Library of Congress
Abigail Adams (1744-1818)
As
wife to President John Adams, and her husband’s confidante and adviser,
she opposed slavery and pushed for women’s rights and education. Her
famous line “remember the ladies”
was followed by urging her husband not to "put such unlimited power
into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if
they could.” While her husband traveled on revolutionary and political
duties, she took over and managed the family farm and business affairs.
She was also mother to another President, John Quincy Adams, though she
died before he attained the office.
Julia C. Addington (1829-1875)
Julia
Addington became the first woman elected to public office in Iowa in
1869 when she became the Superintendent of Schools in Mitchell
County—which, though records from the time may be incomplete, likely
makes her the first woman ever elected to office in the U.S. When some
challenged the legitimacy of her election because she was a woman, the
state Attorney General ruled that she was allowed to continue in her
role, setting an important precedent.
Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright meeting with State Department employees
during a town hall meeting at the State Department in Washington Monday
Jan. 27, 1997. Wilfredo Lee—AP Photo
Madeleine Albright (1937- )
In
1997, she became the first woman to be Secretary of State, and the
highest-ranking woman ever in the U.S. Government. She knew the
importance of that work: her Czech parents fled Nazi Germany in 1939,
and she became a naturalized citizen while in college, but, having been
raised Catholic, it was only as an adult that she learned
her family was Jewish and that many relatives had died in the
Holocaust. She used her position to advocate for human rights, push NATO
to intervene in Kosovo in 1999 and normalize U.S. relations with China
and Vietnam, and became the first Secretary of State to travel to North
Korea.
Cora Belle Reynolds Anderson (1882-1950)
Anderson, a Michigan state legislator in 1925 and '26, was the first Native American woman elected to a state legislature. (She was from the La Pointe band of the Chippewa tribe, also known as the Ojibwe.) She focused on issues of public welfare and public health, including supporting
prohibition and combating tuberculosis. She had previously been a
teacher, studying at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kans., before
returning to Michigan.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., leaves the Senate Democrats' weekly policy lunch in the Capitol on Sept. 7, 2016. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call—Getty Images
Tammy
Baldwin, a junior Senator from Wisconsin, is the first openly gay
person elected a U.S. Senator and the first woman in the senate from
Wisconsin. The progressive Democratic congressperson had previously
served in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2013. In office, she
has advocated for health care reform and sponsored action related to
women's rights, such as the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early
Detection Program Reauthorization Act of 2007. She serves on several
subcommittees for the Senate Committee on Appropriations, including for
the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
Mary McLeod Bethune, April 6, 1949.Carl Van Vechten Photographs—Library of Congress
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
As
Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration from
1936-1944, she also advised President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on
minority affairs and interracial relations, advocating for blacks to be
served by New Deal policies, and was the head of FDR’s “Black Cabinet”—an unofficial but important role. The Women’s Army Corps was integrated
because of her work as a member of the advisory board. The daughter of
former slaves, Bethune thought education was key to racial equality, and
started a school in Daytona Beach, Fla., which later became one of the
few colleges of its time open to black students. Bethune founded the
National Council of Negro Women in 1935 and served as vice president of
the NAACP from 1940 until her death in 1955.
Rep.
Barbara Boxer of Calif., addresses a news conference outside the office
of the Soviet Union’s Deputy Consul in San Francisco Tuesday, July 17,
1984. Paul Sakuma—AP Photo
Barbara Boxer (1940- )
California
Senator Barbara Boxer retired from her position in 2017 after serving
as California’s junior senator since 1993. During her time in office,
Boxer championed efforts to improve medical research and improve health
care, sponsored legislation protecting the environment and wrote the
2004 Freedom of Choice Act, which would have prohibited government from
interfering with a woman’s right to abortion. She was the ranking member
of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and has said she is planning to work now to help get more Democrats elected.
Carol Moseley Braun declares her victory as the first African-American woman elected to the US Senate Nov. 3, 1992 in ChicagoBrian Bahr—AFP/Getty Images
Carol Moseley Braun (1947- )
Braun was one of the "year of the woman" candidates in 1992 who decided
to run for higher office after Anita Hill’s testimony during Clarence
Thomas’ confirmation hearings. She became the first woman of color
elected to the U.S. Senate, representing Illinois from 1993 through
1999. Once elected to the Senate, she worked to advance women’s rights,
civil rights, gun control and more, including the historic preservation
of Underground Railroad sites. In 1993, she convinced
the judiciary committee not to renew a design patent for the United
Daughters of the Confederacy as it included the Confederate flag.
Hattie Caraway, U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Portrait at Desk, 1943. Universal History Archive / Getty Images
Hattie Wyatt Caraway (1878-1950)
Appointed
to fill her husband Thaddeus Horatio Caraway's U.S. Senate seat after
his sudden death on Nov. 6, 1931, the Arkansas Democrat ran for the seat
on her own in 1932 and thus became the first woman elected to the upper
chamber of Congress. (Rebecca Latimer Felton had been officially
the first woman in the Senate, but she served by appointment and only
for a single day in 1922.) The prohibitionist earned the nickname
"Silent Hattie" because she only spoke 15 times in the 14 years that she
served, but quietly voted for important measures like President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal reforms, U.S. entry into World War
II after the Pearl Harbor attack and the first federal loan funding for a
state college. Though she paved the way for women in the chamber, she
was less progressive on the broader civil-rights front; while she was
the first woman to endorse and vote for the Lucretia Mott Equal Rights
Amendment, she voted most of the time with the larger block of Southern
Senators, against an anti-lynching bill and a poll tax ban.
Elaine
Chao testifies at hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee on her confirmation as labor secretary, circa 2000.Harry Hamburg—NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Elaine Chao (1953- )
Chao
became the first Asian-American woman to serve in a presidential
cabinet when President George W. Bush appointed her Secretary of Labor
in 2001. In the eight years she held the position, Chao aimed to improve
overtime regulations for workers and worked for more secure regulations
for unions and workers’ retirements. In January, she was confirmed as
the Secretary of Transportation in a 93-6 vote.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for presidential nomination, January 1972.Library of Congress
Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
With
a Masters in early childhood education from Columbia University,
Chisholm was steadfast in advocating liberal causes—her campaign motto
was “unbought and unbossed.” As the first African-American woman elected
to Congress, she represented a overwhelmingly Democratic constituency
in a newly redistricted Brooklyn neighborhood and in 1971 was a founding
member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The following year she ran a
historic campaign for the Presidential nomination (“I ran because
somebody had to do it first”), and helped create the Congressional
Women’s Caucus in 1977. While in Congress, she championed her district’s
interests, from daycare-funding to minimum wages for domestic workers,
and criticized Congress for being run by “a small group of old men.”
Hillary
Rodham (later Clinton) of Wellesley College talking about student
protests which she supported in her commencement speech.Lee Balterman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton (1947- )
In
2016, she was the first woman nominated by a major party for President
of the United States. A lawyer by training, during her husband Bill
Clinton's time as President, she was the first First Lady to have an
office in the West Wing, and while the healthcare reform plan she
spearheaded during that time failed to pass, she successfully worked
with members of Congress on the creation of Children’s Health Insurance
Program. Prior to her unsuccessful run for the White House, she was also
the first woman to serve as a U.S. Senator from New York (2001-2009)
and served as Secretary of State (2009-2013) in the Obama
administration.
Tammy
Duckworth speaks to the National Symposium for the Needs of Young
Veterans hosted by AMVETS October 19, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Tammy Duckworth (1968- )
Tammy Duckworth, previously a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, came to the Senate recently after beating
the state’s incumbent Senator, Republican Mark Kirk, in 2016. She
served as an Army helicopter pilot during the Iraq war, where she lost
her legs and injured her arm. As a member of Congress, she has parlayed
her personal experience in advocacy for veterans, by working on programs
to help with P.T.S.D. and homelessness.
Dianne Feinstein, in front of San Francisco’s city hall May 6, 1971.AP Photo
Dianne Feinstein (1933- )
A California Senator since 1992, Feinstein is known
for standing up for people (and to people). During her quarter-century
in the Senate, she's helped create AMBER alerts and the assault weapons
ban that expired in 2004, and she was the first woman to chair the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In 1978, she became the first
woman to be mayor of San Francisco when she came into the position, from
her role as president of the Board of Supervisors, following the
assassination of then-mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey
Milk.
Geraldine Ferraro on February 3, 1979 in New York, New York. Santi Visalli—Getty Images
Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011)
The
Queens congresswoman (1979-1985), who once sat on the prestigious House
Budget Committee, was the first woman to chair the Democratic platform
committee and became the first woman vice-presidential candidate for a
major party when Walter Mondale picked her to be his running mate in
1984. They lost to Ronald Reagan. Questions about her personal finances
and that of her husband would thwart future U.S. Senate runs.
Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Barbara Franklin, 1978. Bill Johnson—Denver Post via Getty Images
Barbara Franklin (1940–)
Her
position as Secretary of Commerce for George H.W. Bush wasn't the first
time Franklin had worked in the White House; in the early 1970s she recruited women for high-level jobs
as a staff assistant to President Richard Nixon. Next she was appointed
to the new Consumer Product Safety Commission and spent six years
there, overseeing changes like the first child-resistant caps for pill
bottles and safety changes to children's furniture and toys. As
Secretary of Commerce she increased exports and pushed market-opening
initiatives to normalize commercial relations in Russia, Japan, Mexico
and China.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., takes part in a reenactment of her swearing-in, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 5, 2011.Susan Walsh—AP Photo
Gabrielle Giffords (1970- )
Gabby
Giffords was a U.S. Representative from Arizona until she resigned in
2012 after incurring a severe brain injury during an attempted
assassination. She was a contentious figure in her state for her support
of health care reform and her stance on illegal immigration. Since the
shooting, Giffords has become one of the nation's most visible advocates
for gun control.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States—MCT via Getty Images
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933- )
Nominated
to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, from a previous
position as a United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia
Circuit judge, this Brooklyn opera buff boasts many firsts: first woman
to serve on two major law reviews (Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law
Review), first tenured female Columbia Law School professor and
co-author of the first casebook on sex discrimination. She's known for
her opinions on gender equality, notably the landmark United States v. Virginia, which allowed women to attend Virginia Military Institute.
Gov.
Ella T. Grasso receives the applause of the crowd as she began her
acceptance speech as the party-endorsed gubernatorial candidate at the
Democratic Party state nominating convention in Hartford, Connecticut on
Saturday, July 22, 1978. Bob Child—AP
Ella T. Grasso (1919-1981)
Ella
T. Grasso was the governor of Connecticut from 1975 to 1980, and the
country’s first female governor who had not been married to a previous
governor. Grasso notably shut down all roads and businesses in
Connecticut during a terrible snowstorm in 1978 and was lauded for her
cool head in an emergency situation. Before being elected governor,
Grasso had previously served as a member of the U.S. and state Houses of
Representatives.
Rep. Martha W. Griffiths (D-Mich.) displays a stack of mail in her Capitol office in Washington, March 3, 1963. John Rous—AP Photo
Martha W. Griffiths (1912-2003)
As
a congresswoman from Michigan, serving from 1955 to 1974, she
successfully fought to have women included in the protections of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. She later filed a discharge petition in 1970
to get the Equal Rights Act
out of committee, where it had been held up almost every year since it
was first introduced in 1923, and to a vote. (Although it was passed by
both the Senate and House, it failed to be ratified by a sufficient
number of states before the deadline.) After she decided to leave
Congress, she served two terms as Michigan’s lieutenant governor.
Fannie
Lou Hamer, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegate, at the
Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 1964.Library of Congress
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)
Fannie
Lou Hamer fought for civil rights as a leader of the movement and
member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and also
co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964. She got
involved with efforts to register black voters in the South in 1962, and
during her time with SNCC took part in peaceful demonstrations that
left her exposed to beatings and violence. As the Vice Chair of the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Hamer opposed her state's
all-white delegation at the Democratic Convention in 1964, where her
alternative party captured the national spotlight for the civil-rights
movement. Hamer unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1964, but took part
in forming the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971.
Patricia Roberts Harris, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development appointed by President Carter. 1979.AP Photo
Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-1985)
Named
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977, Harris became the
first black woman to hold a Cabinet position. At Senate hearings for her
appointment, Senators questioned how someone of her elevated position
could understand the needs of the people the department of Housing and
Urban Development focused on. "Senator, I am one of them,” Harris said.
”You do not understand who I am. I am a black woman, the daughter of a
dining car worker. I am a black woman who even eight years ago could not
buy a house in parts of the District of Columbia. I didn't start out as
a member of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a
scholarship to go to school. If you think I have forgotten that, you are
wrong." She later served as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
(1979-1981).
Diane
Humetewa, the first female Native American federal judge. Humetewa is a
member of the Hopi tribe and has served as an Appellate Court Judge for
the Hopi Tribe Appellate Court. Arizona State University—EPA
Diane J. Humetewa (1964- )
As
a federal district judge for Arizona, Humetewa—a member of the Hopi
tribe—is the first Native American woman to be a judge at that level,
and has dedicated her career to making a difference on Native American
legal issues. She was previously a U.S. Attorney for Arizona, professor
at Arizona State University College of Law, a judge in the Hopi
appellate court, assistant counsel for the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs and—even before she went to law school—a victim-witness advocate
at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona.
US Representative Barbara Jordan, 1977.
Ed Maker—Denver Post via Getty Images
Barbara Jordan (1936–1996)
The Texan was the first African-American woman to preside over a legislative body in America when she was elected president pro tempore of the
Texas Senate, and went on to serve in the House of Representatives from
1973 to 1979 and become the first African-American keynote speaker at
a Democratic National Convention. She became famous during the
Watergate scandal when she declared, as a freshman member of the
judiciary committee (which was considering articles of impeachment
against President Nixon), “My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is
complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle
spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the
Constitution.” She argued that if her colleagues didn’t consider
evidence sufficient, “then perhaps the 18th-century Constitution should
be abandoned to a 20th-century paper shredder.”
Elena
Kagan smiles after being sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest member
by Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court Building August 7,
2010 in Washington, DC. J. Scott Applewhite-Pool—Getty Images
Elena Kagan (1960- )
The
first woman to serve as U.S. Solicitor General, she was also a law
professor, advisor to President Clinton and Dean of Harvard Law School
before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 2010. As Dean of Harvard
Law School, she was known for building consensus among professors
reluctant to collaborate, and as Solicitor General, she was responsible
for representing the government before the Supreme Court—beginning with Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
EMILY's
List President Ellen Malcolm speaks at the Emily's List Annual Women in
Power luncheon at the Washington D.C. Convention Center on March 6,
2007.Bill Clark—CQ-Roll Call, Inc. / Getty Images
Ellen Malcolm (1947- )
Malcolm,
who founded EMILY's List in 1985, is the exception to the rule for our
list, in that she is not noticeable for actually running for office
herself. When she founded that organization, no Democratic woman had
ever begun a Senate career in her own right. Malcolm and the friends she
enlisted to help aimed to change that by raising early money for female
candidates. (The organization's name stands for Early Money is Like
Yeast.) EMILY’s List has a hundreds-long list of women—Democratic and
pro-choice women— who they’ve helped elect to local and state office as
well as to Congress. The organization recruits and trains women to run
successful campaigns for political office and supports them along the
way.
Claire
McCaskill, Democratic Missouri U.S. Senate candidate, gestures to the
crowd during a rally Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006, at The Pageant theater in
St. Louis. Kyle Ericson—AP Photo
Claire McCaskill (1953- )
The
senior Senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill became the first elected
female Senator from her state in 2007, and has come to be known as one
of the most moderate members of the entire Senate. In 2014, she
introduced the Victims Protection Act into the Senate, aiming to protect
sexual assault survivors in the military.
Barbara Mikulski at her reception following her swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Jan. 6, 1987. Dayna Smith—The Washington Post via Getty Images
Barbara Mikulski (1936–)
At the point of her decision to retire in 2017 at age 80 — about which she posed the question,
“Do I spend my time raising money? Or do I spend my time raising hell?”
— her 40 years of work on Capitol Hill made her the longest-serving
woman in Congress. A social worker before serving on the Baltimore City
Council, her first campaign for Senate was unsuccessful, but two years
later, in 1976, she was elected to the House. She served five terms
before she was elected to the Senate in 1986, when TIME wrote
that she was "blunt, outspoken and feisty" and "a fierce debater, with a
fondness for pointed quips." Mikulski pushed local advances for
Maryland, like environmental protections or highway funding; helped
protect the New Horizons
mission to Pluto when budget concerns jeopardized it in 2002-3; pushed
to advance women's rights by championing legislation like the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and supporting shelters for victims of domestic
violence; and was the first woman to chair the powerful Appropriations
Committee. She also co-wrote two mystery novels and was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
Rep.
Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, meets reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday Nov. 5,
1997 to call on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Bill Lann
Lee's nomination to head the Justice Department's civil rights division.
Joe Marquette—AP Photo
Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002)
As
the first Asian-American woman in the House of Representatives,
representing Hawaii from 1965 to 1977 and again from 1990 to 2002, Mink
co-sponsored Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 with fellow
congresswoman Edith Green, barring gender discrimination in academics
and athletics at schools receiving federal funding. This law dramatically
changed opportunity and participation in sports for women across the
country, among other things. In addition to championing women’s rights,
civil rights and education reform, Mink was an early critic of the
Vietnam war.
Michelle
Obama speaks to a crowd of supporters as she campaigns for the
Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Convention
Center, in Phoenix, Ariz., on Pct. 20, 2016Mark Ralston—AFP/Getty Images
Michelle Obama (1964-)
The
first African-American First Lady and a lawyer by training, Obama made
the First Lady's role more relatable than ever by utilizing social media
platforms to promote her healthy eating, arts, girls' education and
college initiatives. One of her most significant legacies has been the
first modernization of nutrition labels in over 20 years. Her popularity
in the polls at times surpassed that of her husband, earning her the
nickname "The Closer" on the campaign trail.
Sandra Day O'Connor, circa 1981-1983.Library of Congress
Sandra Day O’Connor (1930- )
The
first female Supreme Court Justice, O'Connor was nominated by Ronald
Reagan and confirmed by the Senate 99-0. She was known for upholding
states' rights and was often a swing vote, perhaps most famously by
casting the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore, making George W. Bush president. She is also famous for letting Roe v. Wade
stand in abortion cases, rejecting challenges to the use of affirmative
action in higher education and for writing the opinion reiterating that
all U.S. citizens are entitled to due process in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld,
in which she wrote that “a state of war is not a blank check for the
President when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens.”
Sarah Palin campaigns for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the primary election Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. Al Grillo—AP Photo
Sarah Palin (1964- )
Sarah
Palin shot from relative national obscurity as the Governor of Alaska
to countrywide prominence when John McCain named her his running
mate—and the first female vice-presidential nominee for the Republican
party—in 2008. She grew to be one of the most prominent voices for the
Tea Party movement as a pro-life and pro-gun-rights advocate. As
governor, she notably signed a bill that would allow an Alaskan gas
pipeline, and since she stepped down in 2009, she has been a political
commentator and television star.
Congressional candidate Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., waves at the Headquarters in San Francisco Tuesday night April 7, 1987. Paul Sakuma—AP Photo
Nancy Pelosi (1940- )
The
Bay Area congresswoman became the highest ranking elected female leader
in the U.S. when she was elected Speaker of the House of
Representatives in 2007. She helped push through President Obama's
historic health care law, the law that raised fuel-efficiency standards
for cars and trucks for the first time in 32 years, the first federal
minimum wage increase in a decade—from (from $5.15 to $7.25)—and the
largest college aid expansion since the G.I. bill.
Frances Perkins.Library of Congress
Frances Perkins (1880-1965)
As
Labor Secretary from 1933-1945, she was the first woman to hold a
cabinet position. Perkins was an architect of FDR’s New Deal, saw to
much of the implementation of policies like minimum wages and
unemployment compensation, and drafted the Social Security Act. She
majored in physics and chemistry at Mount Holyoke, but an economic
history course that required her to tour nearby factories sparked her
life’s work. Having been a social worker, high school teacher and
colleague of Jane Addams at Chicago’s Hull House, she moved to New York,
where she witnessed the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. She
would later say that was “the day the New Deal began.”
Jeannette
Pickering Rankin (1880-1973), a member of the House of Representatives
who was elected in 1916 as the first woman to serve in the U.S.
Congress. Library of Congress
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973)
The Republican social worker became the first woman to be elected to Congress
when she was elected to represent Montana in the House of
Representatives in 1916. Coming from a state that passed women's
suffrage in 1914, she came up with the idea for a committee on women's
suffrage and as a member, started the House floor debate on a
constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote. (The
amendment was ratified in 1920, after Rankin's term had ended.) She was
also a noted pacifist, voting against the USA's entrance into both World
War I and World War II.
U.S.
Attorney General-designate Janet Reno is sworn in before the Senate
Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, March
9, 1993. Barry Thumma—AP Photo
Janet Reno (1938-2016)
Janet
Reno became the first female Attorney General of the United States
after President Bill Clinton appointed her in 1993, and she held the
post during eight years punctuated by high-profile cases. During her
tenure, she notably took the fall for the failure of a deadly Waco,
Tex., police raid that went awry, declined to appoint independent
investigators into Clinton’s campaign finances in 1997 and extended the
Whitewater investigation into Clinton’s land deal to include the Monica
Lewinsky scandal. The relative Washington outsider had previously served
as a Florida State Attorney for 14 years.
Condoleezza
Rice talks about her new book, "Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A
Memoir of Family," during the Newsmakers luncheon at the National Press
Club October 15, 2010 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images
Condoleezza Rice (1954- )
Serving
in President George W. Bush's administration, she became the first
African-American woman to serve as Secretary of State and national
security advisor. She held the record for most miles traveled by a
Secretary of State until John Kerry broke it in April 2016; she got the
White House to support nuclear negotiations with Iran and North Korea,
and she was the first Secretary of State to go to Libya in over 50
years.
Texas governor Ann Richards at the Democratic National Convention on July 13, 1992 in New York.Joe Maquette—AP Photo
Ann Richards (1933-2006)
As
Governor of Texas from 1991-1995, Richards left her mark, appointing
more women and minorities to official positions—including the first
women and African-Americans in the Texas Rangers—than any of her
predecessors had. She also worked to improve the prison system, and
vetoed bills that would have allowed concealed carry of handguns and
damaged the environment. (She’s also mother to Planned Parenthood’s
Cecile Richards and three other children.) In 1988, as the keynote
speaker at the Democratic National Convention, she famously said of
Republican Nominee George Bush: “Poor George, he can't help it. He was
born with a silver foot in his mouth.” In addition to her work in public
office, she helped raised awareness about alcoholism by being public
about her own treatment in 1980.
Edith Nourse Rogers at her desk, 1936.Library of Congress
Edith Nourse Rogers (1881-1960)
Rogers
represented Massachusetts in Congress from 1925 to 1961. During World
War I, she volunteered with the YMCA and Red Cross and continued to work
with military hospitals after the war ended, while her husband served
in Congress. After her husband’s death in 1925, she ran in the special
election to fill the remainder of his term—she won, and then won another
17 elections after that. She introduced legislation that created the
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942 and in 1944 helped draft
the G.I. Bill of Rights, which, among other provisions, helped WWII
veterans afford college tuition and provided for low-interest home and
small business loans.
American diplomat and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962), circa early to mid 1940s. Stock Montage—Getty Images
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
As
the longest-serving First Lady (12 years), she hit the road to promote
the work of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration and her public
policy interests via nationwide press conferences, radio segments and
her daily, syndicated newspaper column "My Day." Having pioneered the
activist role of the First Lady, she was later appointed a delegate to
the United Nations General Assembly by Harry S. Truman, after FDR died,
and served as the first chairperson of the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights when it drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the
wake of World War II.
House
Speaker John Boehner of Ohio performs a mock swearing in for Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, on Capitol Hill in
Washington as the 113th Congress began. Evan Vucci—AP Photo
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (1952- )
Ros-Lehtinen
became the first Cuban American and Hispanic woman to be elected to
Congress in 1989, and is now the most senior Florida member of the U.S.
House of Representatives and the most senior female Republican in the
House. Born in Havana, Ros-Lehtinen lobbies for the Cuban government to
enact political changes that will benefit its citizens, and was a
prominent supporter of ending the U.S. embargo on Cuba. She was also the
first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage, announcing
her support in 2012.
Nellie
Tayloe Ross, Director of the U.S. Mint, at her desk on May 1, 1942, in
Washington where she supervises the turning out of the billions of coins
needed for the defense effort.AP Photo
Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977)
Nellie
Tayloe Ross became the first American woman to be a Governor after her
husband died and she took over his office in 1924. Her political career
was only beginning: After that, she eventually served as vice chair of
the National Democratic Committee, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt
appointed her the Director of the Mint in 1933. Under her leadership,
the mint started printing the Roosevelt dime and the Jefferson nickel.
Phyllis Schlafly at the State house pressroom, Feb. 8, 1984.Duane Howell—Denver Post via Getty Images
Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016)
Phyllis
Schlafly was a prominent political activist of the late 20th century,
known for her outspoken positions against the women’s liberation
movement and the Equal Rights Amendment, which she campaigned against.
She rose to prominence when her book in support of GOP candidate Barry
Goldwater, A Choice Not an Echo, sold more
than three million copies in 1964. Though she never successfully won an
election, she ran for Congress in 1952 and 1970.
Democratic Representative Patricia Schroeder, 1983.Glen Martin—Denver Post via Getty Images
Patricia Schroeder (1940–)
"Little
Patsy" was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives 12 times — and
was the second–youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She sat on the
House Armed Services Committee and championed issues pertaining to women
and families, most notably the Family and Medical Leave Act and the
National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act. Her responses to
sexist comments made national headlines, too. For instance, when a male
colleague asked how she could balance the job with being a mother of two
small children, she replied, “I have a brain and a uterus. I use both."
Margaret Chase Smith, wife of the late Rep. Clyde Smith, Maine Republican, being sworn in, June 10, 1940.Library of Congress
Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995)
The
Maine Republican was the first woman to win election to both houses of
Congress and the first to be put forward as a presidential candidate at a
national political convention in 1964 (she earned the support of 27
delegates but lost to Barry Goldwater). One of her best-known moments
was her June 1, 1950, speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate denouncing
her colleague and Red Scare proponent Joseph McCarthy (R-WI): "The
American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds
lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists,'" she
said. "Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has
been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others."
Associate
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, poses for a photograph at the Supreme Court
building on September 29, 2009 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images
Sonia Sotomayor (1954- )
Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx and has said that the TV show Perry Mason was responsible
for “igniting the passion” that led her to pursue a legal career. In
1992 she was appointed a federal judge in the Southern District of New
York’s U.S. District Court and five years later was nominated to the
U.S. Court of Appeals, beginning the role in 1998. In 2009, President
Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, and she became the first
Hispanic person to serve as a justice.
Elizabeth
Warren looks to the audience after addressing the Democratic State
Convention before the delegate vote in Springfield, Mass. on Saturday,
June 2, 2012. Michael Dwyer—AP Photo
Elizabeth Warren (1949- )
The
Democratic Senator from Massachusetts has become perhaps the most
high-profile progressive of her party. After presiding over the Troubled
Asset Relief Program as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel
following the 2008 economic crisis, Warren beat incumbent Republican
Scott Brown to become the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the
Senate in 2012. She pushed for the 2011 creation of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau to protect buyers by monitoring financial
sector institutions.
Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson, circa 1922.
Hulton Archive—Getty Images
Edith Wilson (1872-1961)
This
First Lady of the United States (1915-1921) is often described as the
first woman president, based on her power to decide which issues would
be brought to President Woodrow Wilson's attention after he suffered a
stroke that left him largely incapacitated in 1919. Among those issues
was the League of Nations. Some historians argue that, by refusing to
compromise with key U.S. Senators who were opposed to the U.S. joining
the pact, she contributed to leaving the world vulnerable to the rise of
fascist leaders in the lead-up to World War II.
Victoria
Claflin Woodhull, the first woman to run for US president from a
nationally recognized ticket as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party
in 1872.Hulton Archive—Getty Images