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

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New York Radical Women

Formed by Pam Allen and Shulamith Firestone in 1967, New York Radi-

cal Women (NYRW) was one of the earliest radical women’s liberation

groups. The group’s most publicized demonstration occurred outside the

1968 Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Two hun-

dred women carried picket signs saying: “Women are people, not live-

stock” and “Can makeup cover the wounds of our oppression?” They des-

ignated a large container “the freedom trash can” and invited participants

to toss items of “female torture” into it. Hair curlers, girdles, bras, and

high heels went into the can, acts that attracted media attention. Reports

that women burned their bras at the event are untrue, but from those re-

ports feminists were given the derogatory appellation of “bra burners.”

The media attention alerted the nation that a new feminist movement was

emerging in this country. The group dissolved in 1969.

References Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975

(1989)

News Media, Women Politicians and

The U.S. news media plays a substantial role in shaping the public’s ap-

praisals of political candidates and politicians, female and male. The me-

dia has a long tradition of reporting on political women differently than

it has reported on political men, encouraging the perception that women

do not belong in the political arena and perpetuating stereotypes of

women. The information news outlets offer about female candidates may

be accurate, but it also may emphasize matters of little consequence or use

prejudicial language.

Women’s physical appearance and attire have attracted undue atten-

tion, with descriptions of a woman’s height, weight, and hairstyle appear-

ing regularly. In 1982, for example, the Des Moines Register concluded that

Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Roxanne Conlin’s changing hair-

styles over several years deserved space in its news section and displayed

several photos of her with different hairstyles. Other political women have

objected when their clothing received more space than their accomplish-

ments. In 1974, after President Richard Nixon resigned as a result of the

Watergate scandal, Mary Louise Smith became chair of the Republican Na-

tional Committee (RNC). At a time when the Republican Party was mired

in controversy, reporters asked Smith if she planned to dye her hair and if

she purchased her clothes from designers or off the rack. Such practices

trivialize political women and minimize their accomplishments.

The adjectives used to describe political women provide an example

of the news media’s tendency to stereotype women. Female members of

News Media, Women Politicians and 499

Congress have been described as “plucky,” “perky,” “spunky,” and “feisty,”

words that would not be used to describe a male member of Congress.

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) was once described as an “ag-

ing cheerleader” and U.S. Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) was called

“aggressive” and “abrasive.” Abzug noted that if she were a man, the words

courageous and dynamic would more likely have been used. RNC chair

Smith was consistently referred to as a gray-haired grandmother from

Iowa, which was true, but reporters did not characterize Democratic Na-

tional Committee chairman Robert Strauss as a gray-haired grandfather

from Texas.

Sex-role stereotyping in the news media takes several forms. Political

women are asked about their homemaking, sewing, and cooking skills,

questions that political men are spared. In addition, men are not asked

about their abilities to repair an automobile, build a house, or mow a

lawn. Reporters frequently question political women about how it feels to

be a woman officeholder, a question that men are not asked to address.

See also Abzug, Bella Savitzky; Hutchison, Kathryn (Kay) Ann Bailey; Public

Offices, Women Elected to; Smith, Mary Louise

References Braden, Women Politicians and the Media (1996).

9to5, National Association of Working Women

Founded in 1973 by Karen Nussbaum and nine other women, 9to5, Na-

tional Association of Working Women seeks to end workplace discrimi-

nation and to help women make the transition from welfare to work. The

organization and its 15,000 members work on several levels, from provid-

ing information to working women seeking advice to lobbying state legis-

latures and Congress. Its bill of rights for working women includes fair

pay, family-friendly policies, prorated benefits for part-time work, a voice

in job design, job security, safe and healthful workplaces, and workplaces

free from all forms of discrimination and harassment.

Through its Job Survival Hotline, staff members answer as many as

25,000 phone calls a year from women wanting advice on job security,

sexual harassment, workers’ rights, maternity leave, and discrimination.

Because ending sexual harassment in the workplace is a priority for 9to5,

the association’s director, Ellen Bravo, and Ellen Cassedy wrote The 9to5

Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment: Candid Advice from 9to5, the Na-

tional Association of Working Women in 1992. The book defines sexual ha-

rassment, provides statistics about it, offers advice on how to deal with ha-

rassers, and includes information on filing complaints.

9to5’s public policy priorities include tax benefits for family-friendly

companies, withholding government contracts from those companies

that are not family-friendly, increasing the minimum wage, increasing

500 9to5, National Association of Working Women

child care options, and requiring benefits for part-time employees. The

organization supported the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the

Civil Rights Act of 1991, the 1990 child care legislation, and state laws on

workplace health and safety and sexual harassment.

The organization inspired the 1980 movie and song Nine to Five.

See also Bravo, Ellen; Child Day Care; Civil Rights Act of 1991; Family and

Medical Leave Act of 1993; Nussbaum, Karen; Pay Equity; Sexual Harassment

References www.feminist.com.

Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth Amendment guarantees women the right to vote. Passed

by Congress on 4 June 1919, it was ratified and added to the U.S. Consti-

tution on 26 August 1920 after more than seventy years of lobbying, or-

ganizing, and campaigning for it.

The text of the Nineteenth Amendment reads:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be de-

nied or abridged by the United States or by any State on ac-

count of sex.

Nineteenth Amendment 501

Suffragists looked on

as Governor Edwin P.

Morrow of Kentucky

signed the Anthony

Amendment;

Kentucky was the

thirty-sixth state to

ratify the Nineteenth

Amendment, which

passed in 1920

(Library of Congress)

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri-

ate legislation.

See also American Woman Suffrage Association; Anthony, Susan Brownell;

Catt, Carrie Clinton Lane Chapman; Mott, Lucretia Coffin; National American

Woman Suffrage Association; National Woman Suffrage Association; National

Woman’s Party; Paul, Alice; Seneca Falls Convention; Stone, Lucy; Suffrage

Nixon, Pat Ryan (1912–1993)

Pat Nixon was first lady from 1969 to 1974, the years her husband Richard

Nixon was president of the United States. Her life as a politician’s wife be-

gan in 1946, the year her husband ran for Congress, and continued until

he resigned from office as a result of the Watergate scandal. Throughout

Richard Nixon’s political career, Pat Nixon steadfastly stood by her hus-

band, campaigning for him, entertaining political supporters and other

guests, and traveling with him on international trips, especially during the

years he was vice president and president. During Richard Nixon’s first

term as president, she sought but did not identify a special project by

which she would become known. Although she continued to explore pos-

sibilities during his second term, the turmoil created by the Watergate

scandal overwhelmed her search. After Richard Nixon resigned from the

presidency, the couple returned to California.

502 Nixon, Pat Ryan

First Lady Patricia

Nixon witnessed her

husband’s inaugura-

tion ceremony, 1969

(Archive Photos)

Born in Ely, Nevada, Pat Nixon was named Thelma Catherine Ryan,

which she changed to Pat Ryan in 1931. After graduating from the Univer-

sity of Southern California in 1937, she taught school in Whittier, Califor-

nia, and met Richard Nixon when they both had roles in a community the-

ater production. They married in 1941, and she ended her teaching career.

References Eisenhower, Pat Nixon (1986).

Nolan, Mae Ella Hunt (1886–1973)

Republican Mae Nolan of California served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 23 January 1923 to 3 March 1925. She won the election to

fill the vacancy created by the death of her husband, John Nolan. As chair

of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, Mae

Nolan was the first woman to chair a House committee. She introduced a

measure for a minimum daily wage of $3 for federal employees, which

passed the House but failed in the Senate. She passed legislation that

transferred the Palace of Fine Arts from the federal government to the

City of San Francisco and that authorized the construction of a federal

building. She declined to run for a second term, saying politics was “en-

tirely too masculine to have any attraction for feminine responsibilities.”

Born in San Francisco, California, Mae Ella Nolan attended Ayres

Business College in San Francisco.

See also Congress, Women in

Norrell, Catherine Dorris 503

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

Congress, 1917–1990 (1991).

Northrup, Anne Meagher (b. 1948)

Republican Anne Meagher Northrup of Kentucky entered the U.S. House

of Representatives on 3 January 1997. Among her congressional priorities

is the construction of a bridge over the Ohio River near Louisville.

Northrup has worked to increase accountability in federal programs and

seeks local government control of programs and the reduction of govern-

ment regulations to help small businesses. Northrup has also worked on

health care reform, focusing on making health care both affordable and

accessible. She founded the House Reading Caucus in 1998, a bipartisan

group that seeks to raise awareness of the problems of illiteracy.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Anne Northrup earned her bachelor’s

degree in economics and business from St. Mary’s College in 1970.

Northrup served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1987 to

1996.

See also Congress, Women in; State Legislatures, Women in

References Congressional Quarterly, Politics in America 1998 (1997); www.

house.gov/northrup/bio.htm.

Norton, Eleanor Holmes (b. 1937)

Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia entered

the U.S. House of Representatives on 3 January 1991. As representative for

the district, Norton is a delegate and does not have a vote in House busi-

ness. She is the first African American woman elected to Congress from

the District of Columbia.

Born in Washington, D.C., Eleanor Holmes Norton earned her bach-

elor of arts degree from Antioch College in 1959 and her master of arts

degree in 1963 and her law degree in 1964 from Yale Law School. Norton

clerked for a federal judge following law school and then was assistant le-

gal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Representing

a white supremacist group that had been denied permission to hold a rally

in Maryland, she argued and won her first case before the U.S. Supreme

Court in 1968.

Norton headed the New York City Human Rights Commission from

1971 to 1977. She convinced several companies to provide maternity ben-

efits, helped change workers’ compensation policies, and won a woman

sportswriter the right to sit in the press box at hockey games, in addition

to other successes. From 1977 to 1981, Norton chaired the Equal Employ-

ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). When she began her work

504 Northrup, Anne Meagher

there, the commission had a backlog of almost 100,000 worker com-

plaints. Norton changed the arbitration system and reduced the backlog

to 32,000 cases. Her work with the EEOC contributed to her decision in

1991 to urge the Senate to hold hearings after Anita Hill alleged that she

had been sexually harassed by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence

Thomas. One of the women who marched to the U.S. Senate in October

1991, Norton explained: “As a black woman I identified with Anita Hill, as

the former chair of the EEOC and because I wrote the guidelines, I had a

special obligation and I believe if we didn’t walk the hearing would not

have been held.” She walked for “black women who have had their sexual-

ity trivialized and scandalized; black women who have had their sexuality

demeaned just as Clarence Thomas had done to Anita Hill.”

Congresswoman Norton has worked for civil rights, women’s rights,

law enforcement, education, and economic development and political in-

dependence for the District of Columbia. A unique situation exists in the

district. Residents pay taxes, but their congressional representative does

not have a constitutional right to vote on the floor of the House. In 1993,

Norton persuaded her colleagues to grant the district’s representative that

privilege, but when Republicans gained the majority for the 104th Con-

gress in 1995, the privilege was withdrawn. Norton relies on her persua-

sive abilities perhaps more than other members of Congress as she works

to represent the district’s needs for infrastructure maintenance and im-

provements, additional federal funds, and an adequate tax system.

See also Congress, Women in; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;

Hill, Anita Faye; Sexual Harassment

Norton, Eleanor Holmes 505

Delegate Eleanor

Holmes Norton

(D-DC), with

Dorothy Height of

the National Council

of Negro Women, dis-

cussed possible mi-

nority voter intimi-

dation in the

elections, 1998

(Associated Press AP)

References Boxer, Strangers in the Senate (1994); www.house.gov/norton/

bio.htm.

Norton, Mary Teresa Hopkins (1875–1959)

Democrat Mary Teresa Norton of New Jersey served in the U.S. House of

Representatives from 4 March 1925 to 3 January 1951, making her the

dean of congresswomen at the time of her retirement. Norton’s political

careers emerged from her efforts to assist working women through a day

nursery she founded. Seeking financial support from Jersey City, she ap-

pealed to Mayor Frank Hague, who facilitated the city government’s mak-

ing a financial commitment to the nursery. In return, Norton permitted

Hague and the state Democratic committee to use her name on its list of

members.

After the woman suffrage amendment was ratified in 1920, both

Democrats and Republicans sought women’s votes and organizational

skills. Democrat Hague, one of the most powerful political bosses in U.S.

history, enlisted Norton’s help attracting women to the party and helped

her develop her political skills. For three years, she recruited and organ-

ized women voters. In 1923, Hague persuaded Norton to run for the Hud-

son County Board of Freeholders. On the county board, she worked for

the construction of a maternity hospital that the county would build and

support, an effort that resulted in the only facility in the country financed

that way. Her experience on the board exposed her to the inadequate serv-

ices and assistance available for disabled, old, or elderly people.

At Hague’s urging, Norton resigned from the board in 1924 to run

for the U.S. House of Representatives. With the help of Hague and the

mothers who had known Norton through the day nursery, she won the

election. She was the first Democratic woman elected to Congress who

had not followed her husband into the office and the first woman elected

from the East. After her election, a reporter asked her to pose for photo-

graphs: one hanging clothes on the line and the other cooking in her

kitchen. She refused, saying: “I do not expect to cook, and I do not expect

to wash any clothes in Congress.”

In 1925, Congresswoman Norton sponsored legislation that funded

construction of the first veterans’ hospital in New Jersey. By 1928, Norton

had become part of a circle of Democratic women activists that included

Eleanor Roosevelt, Belle Moskowitz, and Molly Dewson, all of whom

worked to involve more women in party politics. During the 1930s, Nor-

ton worked with Dewson to enhance the status of women working for the

party at the local level and sought to highlight their contributions to the

party and reward them.

506 Norton, Mary Teresa Hopkins

When Democrats gained the majority in Congress in 1931, Norton

became the second woman to chair a congressional committee, the Dis-

trict of Columbia Committee. At the time, Congress governed the district.

Norton worked for home rule for the district, to improve slum areas in the

city, to give women the right to serve on juries, and to permit women to

be police officers. She helped improved the district’s public transporta-

tion, made progress in improving its slums, passed the district’s first old-

age pension, and obtained an appropriation to build a hospital for tuber-

cular children. Her diligent attention to the district earned Norton the

nickname “Mayor of Washington.” She chaired the committee until 1937.

She next chaired the Labor Committee, making her the first woman

to chair a major legislative committee, beginning in 1937 and holding the

post until 1946. A strong supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s

New Deal legislation, she had been instrumental in the passage of the Na-

tional Labor Relations Act of 1935. As chair of the Labor Committee, her

most outstanding work was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which

took a full year to pass. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and Norton

shared a commitment to establish a minimum pay provision based upon

occupation and not sex, but the American Federation of Labor (AFL) op-

posed the wages and hours sections of the bill and wanted it killed. At the

request of the AFL, Hague asked Norton to kill the bill, a power she had

as committee chair, but she refused and took the bill to the House floor,

where it failed. In 1938, Norton negotiated a compromise with AFL and

brought out a new bill, but the Rules Committee buried it. Norton ob-

tained the necessary 218 signatures on a discharge petition to move the

bill out of the Rules Committee and onto the floor for debate. The bill

passed with its provision that maximum hours and minimum wages be

the same for men and women. The act established a minimum wage of

twenty-five cents an hour, a forty-hour workweek, and overtime wages at

time and a half. In addition, it prohibited child labor. After the bill’s pas-

sage, Norton said: “I am prouder of getting that bill through the House

than anything else I’ve ever done in my life.”

Her interest in the area of pay continued, and she was instrumental

in raising the minimum wage, eventually to seventy-five cents an hour. In

1945, she introduced the Women’s Equal Pay Act, but a measure enacting

the policy did not pass until 1963. As committee chair, Norton encoun-

tered the resentment of some of her male colleagues, who sabotaged some

legislation originating in her committee. In addition, important labor leg-

islation that was within the purview of her committee sometimes went to

other committees because a woman chaired the Labor Committee.

In 1941, Norton enlisted the help of eight of the nine women in Con-

gress to develop bipartisan support for a $6 million appropriation for fed-

Norton, Mary Teresa Hopkins 507

eral nursery schools for the children of women working in war industries.

During the years of World War II, the appropriation rose to $75 million.

Since the 1920s, when Norton had recruited women to join the ranks

of the Democratic Party, she had continued her efforts to encourage women

to become politically active. Her interests included displaced homemakers,

maternity leave, and equal pay for equal work for women. She wrote: “I

think women should first of all be interested in other women, interested in

other women’s projects, their dreams, and their ambitions. It’s up to women

to stand for each other.” She had intended to run for another term in 1950,

but while she was in the hospital with pneumonia, she decided against it.

She served as a consultant to the Labor Department until 1953.

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Norton’s formal education ended

when she was fourteen years old.

See also Congress, Women in; Displaced Homemakers; Equal Pay Act of 1963;

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

References Kaptur, Women of Congress (1996); Mitchell, “Women Standing for

Women: The Early Political Career of Mary T. Norton” (1978); Tomlinson,

“Making Their Way: A Study of New Jersey Congresswomen, 1924–1994”

(1996).

Novello, Antonia Coello (b. 1944)

Antonia Novello was the first woman, the first Puerto Rican, and the first

Hispanic surgeon general of the United States, serving from 1990 to 1993.

Before appointing her surgeon general, President George Bush confirmed

that Novello shared the administration’s opposition to abortion. Novello,

who was born with an abnormally large and malfunctioning colon that

required several surgical operations, explained: “Having been born with a

congenital defect makes me think that everything has a chance to live.” She

added: “Women have to move a little bit away from abortion as the only

issue to tackle.”

As surgeon general, Novello campaigned against teen smoking and

called on R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to stop using ads featuring Joe

Camel, a cartoon character that had more appeal to children than to adults.

She also asked beer and wine companies to end advertising campaigns di-

rected at children and teenagers, saying: “The ads have youth believing that

instead of getting up early, exercising, going to school, playing a sport or

learning to be a team player, all they have to do to fit in is learn to drink the

right alcohol.” Novello also focused attention on domestic violence, the

number of children not vaccinated against common infectious diseases,

and the high rates of injury and death experienced by farm families.

Born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Novello earned her bachelor of science

degree in 1965 and her medical degree in 1970, both from the University

508 Novello, Antonia Coello