Schenken Suzanne O’Dea. From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics (2 Volumes)

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

References New York Times, 11 January 1987; Rymph, “Marion Martin and the

Problem of Republican Feminism, 1937–1947” (1996).

Matalin, Mary Joe (b. 1953)

Republican political consultant and strategist Mary Matalin was political

director for President George Bush’s unsuccessful 1992 campaign for re-

election. Matalin entered politics in 1980 when a former college professor

asked her to work with him on a U.S. Senate campaign. Her candidate lost,

but she had found a career as a political organizer. She joined the staff of

the Republican National Committee (RNC) in 1981 as executive assistant

to the party’s deputy chairman. Matalin entered law school in 1983 but

left a year later and returned to the RNC to run its voter contact program.

Appointed chief of staff to the party’s cochairman in 1985, she next joined

George Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign staff to organize support for

him in the Iowa and Michigan caucuses. After Bush won the party’s pres-

idential nomination, Matalin managed the party’s Victory ’88 voter mo-

bilization program. Chief of staff for the RNC’s chairperson from 1989 to

1991, she joined the Bush campaign in late 1991 as political director.

During Bush’s 1992 campaign for reelection, Matalin attracted press

attention for her criticism of Democratic candidate Bill Clinton. Bush had

directed his campaign staff to refrain from questioning Clinton’s moral-

ity, limiting Matalin’s ability to accuse Clinton of being morally unfit to be

president. She ignored Bush’s policy and told a reporter that the Bush

campaign had “never said that [Clinton’s] a philandering pot-smoking

draft dodger.” She also issued a press release alleging that Clinton had ex-

tramarital relationships and referred to news stories about the relation-

ships as “bimbo eruptions.”

Matalin’s personal life also attracted press attention because she had

a romantic relationship with James Carville, who was chief political di-

rector for Clinton. Although their political attacks on each other’s candi-

date and their romance provided sidebars to the campaign, Matalin’s loy-

alty to Bush was unquestioned. The couple married in 1993 and wrote

All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President (1994), a memoir of their

separate recollections of the 1992 campaign.

Born in Chicago, Matalin attended Western Illinois University for a

year, dropped out and worked at a steel mill, returned to the university, and

earned her bachelor of arts degree in 1978. After the 1992 campaign, she

was a television talk show cohost and then became a radio talk show host.

See also Divorce Law Reform

References McCarty v. McCarty, 453 U.S. 210 (1980).

McCormack, Ellen (b. 1926)

Motivated to run by her opposition to abortion, homemaker Ellen Mc-

Cormack ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1976.

After the State of New York reformed its abortion law in 1970, making it

easier to obtain the procedure, McCormack helped organize a prolife

group on Long Island. Four years later, she worked on a prolife candidate’s

unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate. As a presidential candidate,

McCormack acknowledged that her campaign had only one issue, abor-

tion, and that she entered the race to attract attention to it.

McCormack’s campaign became controversial after she applied for

matching funds from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The Na-

tional Abortion Rights Action League challenged the request, but the FEC

approved the application, and McCormack’s campaign received more

than $200,000 in federal matching funds. McCormack’s name was placed

in nomination at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, and she re-

ceived twenty-two delegate votes.

428 McCarty v. McCarty

McCormack ran for lieutenant governor of New York in 1978 on the

Right to Life ticket, attracting 3 percent of the votes in the general election.

See also Abortion; President and Vice President, Women Candidates for

References New York Times, 9 February 1976; Schoenebaum, ed., Political

Profiles: The Nixon/Ford Years (1979).

McCormick Simms, Ruth Hanna (1880–1944)

Republican Ruth McCormick of Illinois served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 15 April 1929 to 4 March 1931. In 1930, she entered the Re-

publican primary for the U.S. Senate and won, becoming the first woman

nominated by a major party for the Senate. She lost in the general election.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ruth McCormick attended Hathaway

School and Miss Porter’s School. Despite her family’s wishes that she at-

tend college, she became personal secretary to her father, Republican Party

leader Marcus Alonzo Hanna, when he became a U.S. senator in 1899. She

married Medill McCormick of the Chicago Tribune in 1903 and moved to

Chicago, where she became involved in women’s clubs and the labor re-

form movement. In 1913, Ruth McCormick chaired the Congressional

Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and

developed an effective lobbying program for woman suffrage.

McCormick’s activism in the Republican Party gained national

recognition when she was named chair of the Republican Women’s Na-

tional Executive Committee in 1918 in anticipation of ratification of the

Nineteenth Amendment. Appointed an associate member of the Republi-

can National Committee (RNC) from 1919 to 1924, she began working

for equal representation of women on RNC committees in 1923. She was

elected the first national committeewoman for Illinois in 1924 and served

until 1928. Medill McCormick died in 1925.

When Ruth McCormick ran for Congress in 1928, she was her own

campaign manager, but she had a man oversee the men’s division of her

campaign. Most of her campaign support came from the Republican

women’s clubs that she had worked with for several years. Although sur-

prised by the depth of the resistance to a woman’s candidacy, she won

both the primary and general elections.

After reapportionment in 1931, it became apparent that the at-large

seat she held would be eliminated, and she ran for the U.S. Senate. She

won the 1930 Republican primary but lost the general election in that

year’s Democratic landslide. McCormick married retired congressman

Albert Simms in 1932 and moved with him to New Mexico.

See also Congress, Women in; National American Woman Suffrage Association;

Nineteenth Amendment; Republican Party, Women in the; Suffrage

McCormick Simms, Ruth Hanna 429

References Miller, Ruth Hanna McCormick (1992); Office of the Historian, U.S.

House of Representatives, Women in Congress, 1917–1990 (1991).

McKinney, Cynthia Ann (b. 1955)

Democrat Cynthia McKinney of Georgia entered the U.S. House of Rep-

resentatives on 3 January 1993. She became a candidate following Anita

Hill’s testimony accusing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas

of sexual harassment. McKinney said that Hill gave her “a moral context”

for her decision to run for Congress. Her campaign issues included im-

proving education, health care, and economic development opportunities

for poor and disenfranchised people. Her campaign had the usual inten-

sity associated with congressional races, but it also had another factor.

Racism and threats of violence made it unsafe for her to enter some parts

of the district that she wanted to represent.

In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Georgia’s Eleventh Con-

gressional District, the district McKinney represented, a “racial gerryman-

der” and ordered that it be redrawn. In 1996, McKinney easily won elec-

tion from the redrawn district and became the first African American

woman to win a congressional seat from a southern district with a white

majority. She introduced legislation permitting states to create multi-

member districts. Voters would vote for several seats, an approach she be-

lieved would “help heal the racial division created by current legal battles

over districts drawn to ensure minorities comprise a majority.”

430 McKinney, Cynthia Ann

Representative

Cynthia McKinney

(D-GA) spoke at a

press conference

regarding redistrict-

ing in Atlanta, 1995

(Associated Press AP)

McKinney worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to

designate a polluted neighborhood in her district as a “hazard to public

health,” with the goal of having it restored. She convinced the Department

of Justice to help with a fraud investigation of landowners in her district.

Some of her other legislative priorities included gift and lobby reform, tax

fairness, voting rights, and electoral reform.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, McKinney earned her bachelor of arts de-

gree in international relations from the University of Southern California

in 1978, attended Tufts University, and was a diplomatic fellow at Spelman

College in 1984. She taught political science at Clark Atlanta University

and then at Agnes Scott College.

McKinney ran for the Georgia legislature in 1986 with the encour-

agement of her father J. E. McKinney, a Georgia state representative. She

lost that race but won when she ran again in 1988. From 1989 to 1993, she

served in the Georgia House of Representatives, where she focused on civil

rights, economic opportunities for businesses owned by women and mi-

norities, environmental justice, and fair reapportionment. She gained na-

tional attention when she announced her opposition to the Gulf War on

the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives. Two-thirds of the

members left the chamber during her speech, but her father listened and

defended her.

See also Congress, Women in; Hill, Anita Faye; Sexual Harassment; State

Legislatures, Women in

References Bingham, Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress

(1997); Congressional Quarterly, Politics in America 1994 (1993), Politics in

America 1998 (1997); Gill, African American Women in Congress (1997).

McLaughlin, Ann Dore Lauenstein (b. 1941)

Ann McLaughlin served as U.S. secretary of labor from 1987 to 1989. As

secretary of labor, McLaughlin focused attention on gaps in child care

services, established the first blue-ribbon commission to address work-

force competitiveness issues, and stressed economic growth to enhance

the welfare of U.S. workers. She helped negotiate a bill requiring compa-

nies planning large employee layoffs to provide sixty days’ notice and an-

other measure limiting employers’ use of polygraph tests. She addressed

issues related to drugs in the workplace, unemployment insurance, ap-

prenticeship training, older workers, and labor market shortages.

Born in Chatham, New Jersey, McLaughlin studied at Marymount

College from 1959 to 1961, studied at the University of London from

1961 to 1962, received her bachelor of arts degree from Marymount

College in 1963, and did postgraduate work at the Wharton School in

1987. A supervisor of network commercial scheduling for the American

McLaughlin, Ann Dore Lauenstein 431

Broadcasting Company in New York from 1963 to 1966, she returned to

Marymount College in 1966 to become the college’s director of alumnae

relations. In 1969, she became an advertising account executive with a

public relations firm. She joined the Committee to Reelect the President

in 1971, and following Richard Nixon’s reelection she worked on the Pres-

idential Inaugural Committee. Director of public affairs for the Environ-

mental Protection Agency in 1973, she left office in August 1974 when

Nixon resigned the presidency.

McLaughlin returned to government service from 1981 to 1984 as an

assistant secretary at the Department of the Treasury. McLaughlin moved

to the Department of the Interior, where she served until 1987.

See also Cabinets, Women in Presidential

References H. W. Wilson, Current Biography Yearbook, 1988 (1988).

McMillan, Clara Gooding (1894–1976)

Democrat Clara McMillan of South Carolina served in the U.S. House of

Representatives from 7 November 1939 to 3 January 1941. McMillan filled

the vacancy created by her husband’s death but declined to run for a full

term. After her brief tenure in Congress, McMillan held positions in the

National Youth Administration, the Office of War Information, and the

Department of State. She retired in 1957.

Born in Brunson, South Carolina, Clara McMillan attended the Con-

federate Home College and Flora MacDonald College.

See also Congress, Women in

References Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in

Congress, 1917–1990 (1991).

Meek, Carrie Pittman (b. 1926)

Democrat Carrie P. Meek of Florida entered the U.S. House of Represen-

tatives on 3 January 1993. Meek has been a leader in efforts to obtain an

accurate count in the year 2000 national census. Arguing that the 1990 de-

cennial census failed to count about 4 million people, she introduced a bill

permitting the Census Bureau to hire low-income residents in particular

neighborhoods to count the people in that area, which would have neigh-

bors counting neighbors and presumably would lead to a more accurate

count. Another part of the bill would restrict the amount of sampling that

could be done, again in an effort to gain a more accurate census.

As her district attempted to recover from the devastation of Hurri-

cane Andrew, Congresswoman Meek worked to obtain more than $100

million in federal assistance to help rebuild Dade County. In another

area of particular interest to her district, Meek introduced a bill to give

432 McMillan, Clara Gooding

certain Haitian refugees permanent resi-

dency status.

When Congress considered raising

the annual pay level at which employees

participated in Social Security from $50 a

year to a higher level, Meek entered the de-

bate. Noting that she, her mother, her sis-

ter, and her neighbors had done domestic

work, she explained: “Families that em-

ployed [domestics] would express much

affection and gratitude towards them, but

they did nothing for their employees’ fu-

ture economic security.” She recommended

that the level should be $300 annual pay,

but $1,000 was the level in the bill that

passed.

In 1995, Meek criticized Republican attempts to cut Head Start

funding, arguing: “It is one of the few programs, federal programs,

which has succeeded over the years. But now to cut it is a dangerous

thing, because what we are doing on one hand is giving a big tax cut to

the rich and we are cutting off at the pass these poor children who need

Head Start.” She also fought efforts to reduce the growth of Medicaid

and to end sugar price supports (sugar is a major Florida commodity).

Meek has obtained appropriations for a marine research center at the

University of Miami and for a medical training facility at Homestead Air

Force Base.

Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Carrie Meek is the granddaughter of

slaves. As a child she was a domestic worker. She earned her bachelor of

arts degree from Florida A&M University in 1946, and her master of sci-

ence degree from the University of Michigan in 1948. She completed the

course work for a doctorate in 1979 but has not written a dissertation.

A women’s basketball coach at Bethune-Cookman College from

1949 to 1958, she worked with Mary McLeod Bethune, who greatly influ-

enced her. Meek also taught biological sciences and physical education

there and at Florida A&M University from 1958 to 1961. Associate dean of

Miami Dade Community College from 1968 to 1979, she was special as-

sistant to the school’s vice president from 1979 to 1982.

Meek served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1979 to

1983 and the Florida Senate from 1983 to 1993. As a state legislator, Meek

developed much of the state’s housing finance policy, including legislation

that helped working-class people own their homes and another measure

that assisted with the construction of affordable rental units.

Meek, Carrie Pittman 433

Representative Carrie

Meek (D-FL) spoke

on the floor during

the House debate on

the four articles of

impeachment against

President Clinton,

1998 (Associated

Press AP)

See also Bethune, Mary Jane McLeod; Congress, Women in; State Legislatures,

Women in

References Congressional Quarterly, Politics in America 1994 (1993); National

Women’s Political Caucus, National Directory of Women Elected Officials 1995

(1995); www.house.gov/meek/bio.htm.

Meissner, Doris Marie (b. 1941)

Doris Meissner became commissioner of the Immigration and Natural-

ization Service (INS) in 1993. She began her political career in 1971 as a

founding member and the first executive chair of the National Women’s

Political Caucus (NWPC). During the 1972 Democratic and Republican

National Conventions, she and groups of volunteers worked to change

party rules to mandate larger roles for women in the parties. A White

House fellow and special assistant to the attorney general from 1973 to

1974, she was assistant director of the Office of Policy and Planning in

1975. Executive director of the Cabinet Committee on Illegal Aliens in

1976 and deputy associate attorney general from 1977 to 1980, she was

acting commissioner of the INS in 1981 and executive associate commis-

sioner from 1982 to 1985.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Doris Meissner earned her bachelor

of arts degree in 1963 and her master of arts degree in 1969 from the Uni-

versity of Wisconsin. The daughter of German immigrants, Meissner grew

up during World War II amid the xenophobia of the time, especially to-

ward Germans. As her career in immigration developed, she understood

and sympathized with the fears and anxieties that many immigrants ex-

perience.

See also Democratic Party, Women in the; National Women’s Political Caucus;

Republican Party, Women in the

References New York Times, 20 June 1993.

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986)

In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that workplace sexual ha-

rassment is illegal and that a hostile or abusive work environment violates

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mechelle Vinson worked for Meritor Savings Bank, beginning as a

teller in 1974 and gaining promotions to the position of assistant branch

manager at the time she was dismissed in 1978 for excessive use of sick

leave. She filed suit against her supervisor, accusing him of sexually ha-

rassing her from 1974 to 1977, repeatedly demanding sexual intercourse,

fondling her in front of other employees, exposing himself to her, and

434 Meissner, Doris Marie