Continuity and Changes in American Cultureduring 1790
Compared with the pioneer generation, the women Members elected during this period had far more prior political experience. Half the women in the second generation (18) had served as public officeholders or as party officials. Six served in state legislatures or other statewide offices. Chase Going Woodhouse served two terms as Connecticut's popular secretary of state. Four women held local political office, and 11 served as party officials at the state and national levels. The level of education of this group of Congresswomen mirrored that of the pioneer generation; two-thirds (24 of 36) received some type of postsecondary education. Previous political experience also made women more likely to run for national office. In 1934 Caroline O'Day of New York told campaign crowds that the "political apprenticeship" of women had come to an end. With 31 women running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1934 and a record 38 in 1936, O'Day's contention seemed validated.1
/tiles/non-collection/W/WIC_Essay2_2_Women_83rd_NARA.xml Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration Women of the 83rd Congress (1953–1955). Seated, from left: Vera Daerr Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Leonor K. Sullivan of Missouri, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, Marguerite Stitt Church of Illinois, Gracie Bowers Pfost of Idaho, and Katharine St. George of New York. Standing, from left: Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, Frances Payne Bolton of Ohio, Ruth Thompson of Michigan, Cecil Murray Harden of Indiana, and Maude Elizabeth Kee of West Virginia.
Among the second generation, the median age at which women were elected to Congress was 49, slightly lower than their predecessors. This figure is important largely because it determines a Member's ability to accrue the seniority requisite for leadership positions. By comparison, the average age of all House Members entering Congress from 1931 to 1950 was 45 years; nearly 30 percent of the men were 39 or younger. The median age at retirement during this era ranged from 53 to 57 years.2 During World War II, three women were elected in their 30s: Winifred Claire Stanley of New York, 33, the youngest woman elected to Congress up to that date; Katharine Edgar Byron of Maryland, 37; and Clare Boothe Luce of Connecticut, 39. The oldest woman elected to Congress during this period was 66-year-old Hazel Hempel Abel of Nebraska, a distinguished state official who served a brief Senate term in 1954.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) administration, through the direct and indirect efforts of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, helped boost the number of women serving in federal office. In appointing women to government positions, President Roosevelt broke with precedent: as Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in the presidential Cabinet; former House Member Ruth Bryan Owen was the first woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador (to Sweden); and Florence Allen was the first woman judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Many of the women who rose to prominent positions in Congress and the federal government in the 1930s had known the First Lady since the days when she worked in Greenwich Village settlement houses and registered women voters across New York state.3 Caroline O'Day, for example, was among Eleanor Roosevelt's confidantes. The pair had traversed New York in the 1920s, organizing women voters and working on Governor Al Smith's 1928 presidential campaign. In the 1934 midterm elections, Eleanor Roosevelt made campaign appearances on O'Day's behalf, becoming the first First Lady to stump for a candidate. O'Day's campaign was successful, and she remained in Congress for nearly a decade. Congresswoman Nan Wood Honeyman of Oregon, an unflagging supporter of FDR, had known Eleanor Roosevelt since their days at finishing school in New York City. Helen Gahagan Douglas of California conferred often with the First Lady. Eleanor Roosevelt also campaigned for successful Democrats Katharine Byron and Chase Woodhouse, among others, and she inspired young women to consider political life. Coya Knutson of Minnesota recalled that a June 1942 radio address by Eleanor Roosevelt prodded her to become active in civic affairs. "It was as if the sun burned into me that day," Knutson said.4
Impressive political résumés helped more women secure influential committee assignments particularly during and after World War II, when women were assigned to prominent panels such as Agriculture, Armed Services, Naval Affairs, Public Works, Rivers and Harbors, Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Judiciary, and Interior and Insular Affairs. Five women were assigned to the Foreign Affairs Committee, and four served on the Banking and Currency Committee during this era. Other assignments reinforced patterns set during the first generation of women in Congress, when women legislated on less powerful panels such as Education, Veterans' Affairs, Post Office and Civil Service, and Government Operations. Many of these committees dealt with issues that had long been considered part of a woman's sphere.
Women served on more than 30 House committees during this era. In the Senate, where only two women served an entire term or longer, women won appointments to roughly 20 committees.5 A trailblazer, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who began her career in the House and was later elected to the Senate, served as a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations and Armed Services panels. Four women chaired seven congressional committees during the period from 1935 to 1954: Representative Mary T. Norton of New Jersey—District of Columbia (1935–1937), Labor (1937–1947), Memorials (1941), and House Administration (1949–1951); Representative Caroline O'Day—Election of the President, Vice President, and Representatives in Congress (1937–1943); Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts—Veterans' Affairs (1947–1949 and 1953–1955); and Senator Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas—Enrolled Bills (1933–1945).
House leaders, particularly Speakers Joe Martin of Massachusetts and Sam Rayburn of Texas, promoted women to key positions. As Republican Minority Leader in 1943, Martin secured seats for Margaret Chase Smith and Clare Boothe Luce on Naval Affairs and Military Affairs, respectively, to recognize women's contributions to the war effort and to bring "a woman's viewpoint" to traditionally all-male committees.6 Rayburn steered several women onto important committees, including Chase Woodhouse, with whom he had a frank and warm relationship. "You get the same pay as we do, don't you?" Rayburn once asked her. "Yes, sir, for a change," Woodhouse replied. "And you worked three times as hard to get here as any of us did," he said.7 Speaker Rayburn, who shared Woodhouse's disdain for fundraising and admired her efforts to keep lobbyists at arm's length, confided to her, "If I had twenty-four like you, I'd be happy."8 Later in his Speakership, Rayburn persuaded reluctant chairmen to accept Coya Knutson and Martha Wright Griffiths of Michigan as members of Agriculture and Ways and Means, respectively.
The widow's mandate and familial connection remained prevalent in the second generation of women in Congress. Fourteen of the 36 women who were elected or appointed directly succeeded their husbands. Another woman, Leonor K. Sullivan of Missouri, won election in 1952 to the St. Louis district served by her late husband for much of the 1940s. Dixie Bibb Graves of Alabama was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1937 by her husband, Governor Bibb Graves. In all, 44 percent of the women from this generation came to Congress through familial connections. The persistence of this trend explains another statistic: Nearly half the women elected or appointed in this era (17) served one term or less. This was particularly true of southern widows such as Willa Lybrand Fulmer of South Carolina, Florence Reville Gibbs of Georgia, Elizabeth H. Gasque of South Carolina, Rose McConnell Long of Louisiana, and Clara G. McMillan of South Carolina, who were chosen by party leaders as temporary placeholders until a permanent male successor could be found.
During this second generation, another major barrier finally fell. For the first time in both chambers, a woman directly succeeded a woman; Representative Stanley succeeded retiring Congresswoman O'Day in a New York At-Large seat in 1943, and Hazel Abel was elected Senator from Nebraska in 1954, succeeding Republican appointee Eva Kelly Bowring.
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Source: https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/National-Stage/Change-Continuity/
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