Politics

“A woman’s place is in the House — and in the Senate,” according to a political slogan of the 1970s. But after generations of struggle for basic human rights at home and in the workplace, a place of full equality for women is still a goal. And it is still a struggle.

Early activism focused on suffrage, culminating in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. How would their long-overdue right to vote change the position of women in American society? Though women assumed a leading role in social movements, their political status barely changed in the decades that followed; by 1930 there were still only 13 women in Congress. After the 1970 elections, the number remained the same.

As of 2011, however there were 17 female senators and 77 women in the House. There were six female governors and 1,700 state legislators were women. If we don’t yet have enough women in the House and in the Senate, things are headed in the right direction — thanks to generations of women who have pioneered new roles.

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  Madeline Albright
  1937 –

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  Alice Paul
  1885 – 1977

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  Carrie Chapman Catt
  1859 – 1947

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  Eleanor Roosevelt
  1884 – 1962

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  Geraldine Ferraro
  1935 – 2011

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  Jane Addams
  1860 – 1935

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  Mary McLeod Bethune
  1875 – 1955

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  Mary Church Terrell
  1863 – 1954

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  Rosa Parks
  1913 – 2005

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  Sandra Day O’Connor
  1930 –

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  Shirley Chisholm
  1924 – 2005

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  Sonia Sotomayor
  1954 –

Aida Alvarez: Eugenie Moore Anderson: Ethel Andrus: Shirley Temple Black: Carol Moseley Braun: Jane Margaret Byrne: Genevieve Cline: Josefina Fierro de Bright: Susan R. Estrich: Phyllis Gibson: Ella Grasso: Mary Harriman Rumsey: Penny Harrington: Barbara Jordan: Adelina Otero-Warren: Carrie Saxon Perry: Condoleezza Rice: Mary Louise Smith: Marion Stubbs Thomas: Tracey Thurman: Johnnie Tillman: Barbara Watson: Susan Rice: Susana Martinez: