Women US Senators
In our countriy’s the first 125 years there were no women in our highest governing body – the United States Senate. Only one woman had served in the House of Representatives. The first woman Senator was appointed by Georgia Governor Hardwick and served on November 21, 1922. Rebecca Felton was 87 years old on that momentous day, a widow well known in Georgia for her support of many causes including woman suffrage and education for girls. She was named on October 3 to fill the seat of the late Senator Tom Watson until a successor could be elected. The governor, who had voted against woman suffrage when he was in Congress, was also up for reelection in 1922 and hoped to appease the newly franchised women with this gesture and gain their support in the fall election. He probably did not expect her to appear in Washingon, but she appealed to Senator-elect Walter George to wait a day before presenting his credentials, and with no objection from the floor, she was Senator on November 21. On the next day she again appeared, said a few witty and friendly words, and departed.
Senator Rebecca Felton, born on June 10, 1835, was well known in political circles. She graduated from the Madison Female College in 1852, taught school and worked with her husband to restore their war-ravaged farm. She gained political skills as her husband’s campaign manager and press secretary when he ran for Congress, writing speeches and planning strategy for his successful campaign in 1874. The press called her “a belligerent feminist from the backwoods.” When he won a second term, the headline on the local paper read, “Mrs. Felton and Her Husband Returned.”
Felton played several important roles in the creation and operation of the Woman’s Building of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She was elected temporary chair at the first meeting of the more than 100-member Board of Lady Managers in November, 1890. In her speech she pleaded for representation from all geographical sections and for harmony among the women, as many in the country did not want the efforts of Women’s Building to succeed. She lobbied the US Senate for funding, tried to get assignments for Southern women, and often had to placate ruffled feathers of aggrieved members. She worked valiantly but unsuccessfully for inclusion of the “labor and skill . . . of Negro women.” In October, 1892, Felton accepted the assignment of allotting space in the building to women’s organizations including the YWCA, WCTU, and suffrage groups, a task requiring great diplomacy. Also as chair of the Agriculture Committee, selected because of her expertise in running her family’s Georgia plantation, she tried to honor the invaluable work of farm women.
Beginning in 1899 she wrote a weekly column for the Atlanta Journal giving advice on farming and home management and supporting Confederate veterans’ needs. Felton had long supported woman suffrage. She was a delegate to the 1912 convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association held in Philadelphia. In 1914 and 1915 she spoke before the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments. She supported public universities and vocational training for poor white girls. After WWI she opposed the League of Nations. She continued to write letters to the press on public affairs and was serving as trustee of the Georgia Training School for Girls when she died on January 24, 1930, aged 95.
Almost nine years passed before the second woman Senator took her seat. Hattie Caraway (February 1, 1878-December 21,1950) was appointed by the Governor of Arkansas to fill her husband’s seat when he died in 1931; she served until January 1945. Unlike Felton, she had no political experience when appointed, but she was a quick learner, studied issues, and never missed a roll call. She was the first women to win election to the Senate when she won the special election and won two full terms after that, although party bosses opposed her in the primaries. In 1932 she remarked, “If I can hold on to my sense of humor and a modicum of dignity, I shall have a wonderful time running for office whether I get it or not.” She supported the League of Nations and opposed isolationism. In 1943 she co-sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment, the first woman in Congress to endorse it. She served as member of the US Employees’ Compensation Commission in 1945-46. In February 2001 she was commemorated on a 76 cent postal stamp.
Three other women were named to the senate during Caraway’s terms, but only two made it to the chamber. Rose Long (April 8,1892 – May 27,1970), widow of Huey Long, was named to the Senate in January 1936 and served until January 1937. She won a special election in April for the remaining months of the 74th Congress. During her year of service she proposed and secured an enlargement of the Chalmette National Park on the site of the battle of New Orleans, and sponsored events of interest to her constituents
Dixie Graves (July 26,1882-Jan. 21,1965) was appointed to the Senate when Senator Hugo Black resigned to become an Associate Judge on the Supreme Court. Her appointment in August 1937 brought charges of nepotism because she was the governor’s wife. Her speech against the Anti-Lynching Bill appears to be the first speech on the floor by a woman senator. Although strongly condemned by northern newspapers, she claimed this bill was unnecessary because lynchings had been decreasing and, with existing state laws, would be completely stopped in 5 years. Graves was active in the suffrage drive, temperance movement and supported the child labor amendment. She was a member of the League of Women Voters, Federation of Women’s Clubs, and American Red Cross. The Dixie Graves Parkway in Alabama is named for her.
The next woman senator did not make it to the Senate Chamber. Gladys Pyle (October 4,1890-March 14,1989) of South Dakota won a special election in November 1938 to fill the final weeks of Senator Norbeck’s term. South Dakota state law prohibited her from seeking a full term. Congress had recessed for the year, so until January 1939 she worked from her office in Washington on programs affecting South Dakota. Pyle had served as Secretary of State in South Dakota from 1927 to 1931 so she well knew the problems. Her daughter, also named Gladys Pyle, carried on in politics and became the first woman to serve in both houses of the South Dakota legislature.
From January 1939 to October 1948 there were no women senators. The sixth woman senator did not even make it to Washington. Vera Bushfield (August 9,1889-April 16,1976) was appointed in October 1948 by the South Dakota Governor to fill her deceased husband’s seat. The 80th Congress had recessed for the year and Bushfield stayed in South Dakota working on constituent services. She resigned in December to allow the newly elected Karl Mundt to gain seniority.
The seventh woman senator was Margaret Chase Smith (Dec. 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995). She was a Maine Congresswoman for 4 terms, from 1940 to 1948. She was elected to the Senate in November 1949 where she served until January 1973. She is best known for her denouncement of Senator McCarthy’s witch hunting activities in her “Declaration of Conscience” speech in 1950. She supported research at the National Institutes of Health; she endorsed civil rights, federal aid to public education and social security. In the 1960s she worked for recognition of the rose as the official national flower; finally in October 1987 legislation was passed giving this honor to the rose. In 1964 she declared her candidacy for president; she received 27 first ballot votes at the Republican National Convention. In 1970 she delivered her second Declaration of Conscience speech which criticized extreme tactics of students and also Nixon’s attempts to repress dissent. She died of a massive stroke at age 97.
During the 24 years that Senator Smith served, four other women joined her, one at a time. The first was Eva Bowring (January 9,1892-January 8,1985), appointed by the Nebraska governor to fill almost 7 months of the deceased Senator Griswold’s term. Senator Bowring served from April 25, 1954 to November 7, 1954. She worked for flood control projects to aid farmers and stock growers in her state. She chose not to seek election in November. She continued to serve, however, as member of the Advisory Council, National Institutes of Health, from 1954 to 1961.
The ninth woman senator was Hazel Abel (July 10, 1888 – July 30, 1966) who defeated 15 other Republicans for the priviege of being Senator for 2 months. Nebraska law forbade the winner of this special election to seek election to the traditional 6-year term in November. She served from November 8, 1954 to December 31, 1954 when she resigned to give Senator-elect Carl Curtis a bit of seniority. Senator Abel joined Senator Smith in voting to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy. Abel graduated from the University of Nebraska, taught school and after her husband died she was president of the Abel Construction for 20 years. She served on the boards of trustees of Doane College and Nebraska Wesleyan College.
Maurine Neuberger of Oregon succeeded her husband Richard when he died in office in March 1960; she served until 1967. Senator Neuberger (January 9,1907-February 22,2000) supported funding for the President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1962. She pushed for warning labels on cigarettes and IRA deductions for child care. She also supported economic relief for high unemployment areas and conservation and environmental issues. After leaving office she lectured on consumer affairs and the status of women.
Elaine Edwards (March 8,1927- ) was appointed by her husband, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, to fill the seat of the deceased Senator Ellender on August 1, 1972. Her announced decision not to seek election in November lessened the public outcry over his action. During her 3 ½ months, she joined Senator Hubert Humphrey in support of an educational fellowship named for Senator Ellender. She also pushed for an increase in the amount Social Security recipients could earn without losing benefits. She resigned her seat on November 13, 1972 to permit Senator-elect J. Bennett Johnston gain seniority.
From January 1973 until 1978 there were no women in the Senate.
Muriel Humphrey (February 20,1912-September 20,1998) was appointed in January 1978 to fill Hubert Humphrey’s seat; she served until November 7. During that brief period, she urged ratification of treaties with Panama and she sponsored legislation to provide protection of federal employees who exposed waste or fraud. She also co-sponsored the joint resolution extending the deadline for ratification of the ERA. She offered the amendment which was successful in changing the name of the Department of Health, Educaton and Welfare to the Department of Health and Human Services. In 1979 she married Max Brown, a childhood friend.
Maryon Allen (November 30,1925- ) was appointed by Alabama Governor George Wallace to fill the term of her deceased husband, Senator James Allen. Senator Maryon Allen served from June to November, 1978. She wrote a column for Alabama newspapers entitled, The Reflections of a News Hen, when she was a Senator’s wife, and she was a columnist for the Washington Post from 1978 to 1981. In 1974 President Ford appointed her Chair of the Blair House Fine Arts Commission. She is owner of a restoration and design firm, Maryon Allen Company in Birmingham, Alabama.
Nancy Kassebaum ( July 29,1932- ) was Senator from Kansas from December 1978 to January 1997. She was the only Republican to vote against confirmation of John Tower in 1989. She supported a woman's right to choose, worked for employee’s rights, anti-discrimination laws and civil rights. She supported limited sanctions against South Africa, and often opposed Senator Helms on foreign relations issues. She married former US Senator Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee in 1996.
Paula Hawkins (January 24,1927- ) won election to the Senate in Florida in 1980 and served one term. Her legislative work included the Missing Children’s Act of 1983. She opposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and also funding for abortion. In 1986 she wrote Children At Risk: My Fight Against Child Abuse.
Barbara Mikulski (July 20,1936- ) is the longest-serving woman Senator, winning election in Maryland in 1986 after serving in Congress from 1977 to 1986. She was the first woman on the ethics committee and the first to call for public hearings on the charges against Senator Packwood. She has been a stanch supporter of NASA, also women’s health issues, right to choose. She serves on the Appropriations Committee and on the Health, Educaiton, Labor and Pension Committee dealing with legislation on child care, national health insurance and consumer protection. She chairs the Subcommittee of Commerce, Justice, and Science, and serves on the Homeland Security Subcommittee.
Jocelyn Burdick February 6,1922- ) of North Dakota was the 17th woman Senator. She received an interim appointment when her husband Senator Quentin Burdick died. She served from September to December of 1992 and was not a candidate in 1992.
Dianne Feinstein (June 22,1933- ) was elected California Senator in November 1992 to fill 2 years of Senator Pete Wilson’s term, and was reelected in 1994 and 2000. She had been a member and president of the Board of Supervisors and then Mayor of San Francisco. In the Senate she opposed the welfare overhaul of 1966 because its funding formula was unfair to California’s needy citizens. She succeeded in saving the Mojave National Preserve and also succeeded in banning many semiautomatic assault-type weapons. She serves on the Rules, Judiciary, Appropriations and Energy and Natural Resources Committees.
Barbara Boxer (November 11, 1940- ) joined the Senate as California’s junior Senator in January 1993, making California the first state to have two women senators at the same time. Boxer served 10 years in the House before winning election to the senate in 1992. She introduced the law creating federal funding for local afterschool programs which began in 1995 with $750,000. The program now helps 1,400,000 children. She authored a Patients’ Bill of Rights in 1997 and supports a comprehensive prescription drug coverage theough Medicare. Other issues include proving safe drinking water through removal of arsenic, and preserving social security. She supports a ban on assault weapons and blocking oil drilling in Alaska Wildlife Refuge. She serves on Senate Committees on Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Environmment and Public Works. She is chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee
Carol Moseley-Braun (August 16,1947- ) became the 20th woman Senator in 1992 when she won election in Illinois. She was the first African American woman in the senate where she opposed the death penalty, favored gun control and worked for pension reform for women and federal aid to public schools. Moseley-Braun had been a Prosecutor in the office of US Attorney from 1973 to 1977 and was ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in 1999. ,
Patty Murray (October 11, 1940 - ) was elected Senator from Washington in January 1993 after serving in the Washington State Senate. She has supported legislation to protect old-growth forests, Indian tribes and the Alaska tundra. She worked to increase Pell grants to make college more affordable and to extend access to health care in rural areas. To increase port security she worked to increase Coast Guard budget by 10% in 2001. She has worked to lift the ban on abortion on demand for military women, and supported hearings against Senator Packwood. She serves on the Committee on Appropriations.
Kay Hutchison (July 22, 1943 - ) was elected Senator in a special Texas election in June 1993 and was reelected in 2000. She is now the most senior woman Republican . She voted to convict President Clinton in his impeachment trial, and also voted against strong rules for fuel efficiency, background checks for gun purchasers, and against gender, sexual orientation and disability in federal hate crime protections. She has voted for patient rights in HMOs, and for restricting use of genetic information by insurers, and for assisting victims of Gulf War Syndrome. She worked to increase pay for teachers in the “No Child Left Behind Act.”
Olympia Snowe (February 21, 1947 - ) won election to the Senate from Maine in 1994 and 2000. She was the youngest Republican woman and the first Greek American in Congress in 1978. She has worked for improving women’s health opportunities and supports a women’s right of choice. She is the leading advocate for raising child care subsidy for welfare recipients as member of the Senate Finance Committee. She has worked to require health insurance plans for federal employees to pay for contraceptives since insurance plans cover Viagra. She was one of 5 Republican Senators who voted to acquit President Clinton in his impeachment trial. She serves on the Select Committee on Intelligence.
tiSheila Frahm (March 22,1945- ) was appointed Senator on June 11 to fill the seat of Kansas Senator Dole when he resigned in 1996 to run for president. She had been a Kansas State Senator and was Lieutenant Governor. She served until January, 1997. She succeeded in extending the Multi-family Rural Housing Loan Program through 1997.
Susan Collins of Maine (December 7, 1952 - ) was elected in 1996 and reelected in 2002, making Maine the second state with 2 women Senators serving at the same time. She led the successful effort to triple funding for early reading initiatives. She co-authored the 1998 Higher Education Act and supported increases in Pell Grants. She helped win passage of the Collins-Lieberman intelligence reform legislation, and led the fight to restore millions to the Medicare program for home health care. She supports aid for small businesses, lifting estate taxes, mandating balanced budgets and setting term limits. She also supports extending federal funding for poor women and right to choose. She was one of 5 Republicans voting against Clinton’s impeachment. She opposes capital punishment. She serves on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.
Mary Landrieu (November 23, 1955- ) has served as Louisiana Senator since 1996; she was reelected in 2002 also. She had been in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1979-1987, and the state treasurer from 1987-1995. She supports full funding for Head Start and federal dollars for computers in classrooms. She supported abortion rights and worked for aid to farmers in Louisiana. She voted for drilling in the Artic and against gun control.
Blanche Lambert Lincoln (September 30, 1960 - )of Arkansas was elected in 1998, the youngest person elected to the Senate; she was reelected in 2004. She served in the House as Blanche Lambert from 1993 to 1997. She serves on the SenateFinance Committee and Special Committee on Aging; shechairs the Senate Hunger Caucus which publicizes the needs of millions of Americans. She also works for veterans’ benefits, health care, social security and alternative energy sources. She co-chairs a new organization, “The Third Way,” a bipartisan approach to creating solutions to old problems.
The election of 2000 brought four new women Senators to Washington. They were Maria Cantwell, Jean Carnahan, Hillary Clinton and Debbie Stabenow.
Maria Cantwell (October 13, 1958- )made Washington the third state to be represented in the US Senate by 2 women at the same time. She was member of Congress in 1992 where she worked on the Family and Medical Leave Act and also on the deficit reduction plan of 1993. In the Senate, educational opportunities and greater access to quality health care are among her priorities. She works on opening access to Washington’s agricultural products in Cuba and Mexico. She opposed privitation of Social Security, and drilling in the Artic. She sponsored the clean EDGE Act of 2006
.Jean Carnahan (1933- )of Missouri, filled the seat won by her husband who died just before the election in 2000. She was defeated in a special election in 2004.
Hillary Clinton (October 26, 1947 - )of New York sits on tha Committees for Environment and Public Works; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and also the Armed Services Committee which includes funding veterans’ health care. She is on the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe. She has written and edited books including her autobiography, Living History.
Debbie Stabenow (April 29,1950- ) of Michigan authored the first federal ban on drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes. Elected to the senate in 2000, she serves on the Budget Committee, as well as the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs where she is involved in protecting consumer privacy, preventing identity theft and protecting whistle blowers. She joined 22 senators in opposing sending troops into Iraq. In the Michigan State House and Senate from 1979 to 1994 she authored the domestic violence law.
Lisa Murkowski (May 20,1957 - ) of Alaska was appointed on December 20, 2002 to fill the term of Senator Frank Murkowski, her father. She won election in 2004. She serves on Veterans Affairs Committee and Indian Affairs Committee. She supports health care reform, choice for womrn, stem cell research and drilling in the Artic. She has voted against many energy and natural resources bills
Elizabeth Dole ( July 29,1936 - ) of South Carolina began serving in the Senate in January, 2003, becoming the 33rd woman to serve in the Senate since 1795. She had served in cabinet positions as Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Labor and was President of the American Red Cross from 1991-1999. She ran briefly for the Republican presidential nomination in 1999. She serves on the Aging, Armed Services and Banking Committees. She has authored 3 books of inspiration and memoirs.
The election of 2006 brought the 34th and 35th women Senators to Congress on January 4, 2007. Amy Klobuchar (May 25,2960 - ) of Minnesota was elected Hennepin County Attorney in 1998 and reelected in 2002. She was a leading advocate for passage of a felony DWI law for which she received an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She also worked for passage of a state law ehich guarantees 48-hour hospital stay for new mothers. In the Senate, Klobuchar supports universal health coverage bills. Her committee assignments include Agriculture, Environment, Commerce and Science, and the Joint Economic Committee.
Claire McCaskill (July 24,1953- ) of Missouri was elected in 2006. McCaskill served in the state legislature from 1983 to 1989. She was state auditor and then Jackson County prosecutor from 1999. In the Senate, McCaskill serves on the Permanent Subcomittee on Investigations, formerly known as the Truman Committee. Her other committee assignments include Armed Services, Commerce, Homeland Security, Aging and Indian Affairs. She is pro-choice, pro-labor, and works to increase the minimum wage. She demands accountability in treatment of wounded veterans and also in spending practices of the Department of Defense.
For more about the lives and deeds of these strong women, please consult:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-2005. U.S. Government Printing
Office, 2005.
Andrew Dodge and Betty Koed, compilers.
Women in Congress 1917-1990. Office of the Historian, U.S, House of Representatives, 1991.
Photographs of the 129 women in the House and Senate are included.
Congressional Quarterly publications
Notable American Women, 1607-1900
Notable American Women, the Modern Period
Notable American Women, Completing the Twentieth Century
Weimann, Jean. The Fair Women. 1981
Whitney, Catherine. Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate
