Women Leadership in our Representative Government

Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine shakes hands with an unidentified colleague, 1950. 

U.S. Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink, 1965-05-10.

Former Congressperson, Shirley Chisholm at an appearance at George Mason University, 1985-02-28.

Former Congressperson, Shirley Chisholm speaks at an appearance at George Mason University, 1985-02-28.

Buttons worn by League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area members, 1980s.

Note from the Chair of the ERA Ratification Council to Virginia State Senator Emilie F. Miller, 1988-03-04.

Women of the 20th Century have also played an important part in representative government on the state and national level. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to become a member of both houses of the U.S. Congress served for thirty-three years (1940-1973) and was one of the first members of congress to denounce fellow republican Joseph McCarthy from the floor. Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress served twenty-four years (1965-1977 and 1990-2002) and was a key contributor to Title IX, a civil rights law assuring that no person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to congress (1969-1983), was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Each of these congresswomen mounted their own presidential campaigns during the 1960s and 70s, and each participated in the House and Senate voting on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) resolution of 1971-72. ERA was a proposed amendment to the Constitution that affirmed that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.