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ment that tests and examinations for fetal viability had to be performed

before a physician could perform an abortion on a woman the physician

believed to be twenty weeks or more pregnant. The prohibition against

using public employees and facilities in abortions was accepted because

the Court said it did not violate the due process clause.

See also Abortion; Roe v. Wade

References Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989).

Weddington, Sarah Ragle (b. 1945)

As a young Texas lawyer, Sarah Weddington

argued Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme

Court in 1973 and won abortion rights for

U.S. women. The case developed when

Weddington and an informal network of

abortion rights activists, who were provid-

ing abortion referral services, decided to try

to legalize abortions in Texas by bringing a

suit against the state’s 1854 law prohibiting

the procedure. In 1970, they identified a

pregnant woman who wanted an abortion

and was willing to participate in a legal

challenge to the state’s abortion laws. To

protect her identity, Weddington gave her

the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” a name repre-

senting all women to Weddington.

Weddington argued that the laws were vague and unconstitutionally

broad and infringed on the plaintiff’s right to safe and adequate medical

advice and on her fundamental right to choose whether to bear children.

Arguing the case before a three-judge panel in federal court, Weddington

won when the court declared the Texas abortion laws unconstitutional.

The state appealed the case. Weddington argued the case before the U.S.

Supreme Court in 1971.

While the Supreme Court considered Roe v. Wade, Weddington and

others worked to change Texas’s abortion laws but failed, prompting Wed-

dington to run for the Texas legislature in 1972. Her campaign issues in-

cluded rape law reform, increased access to credit for women, pregnancy

leave, and employment equity. Weddington did not believe that she could

win the race, but it gave her a platform to bring attention to women’s po-

litical status. She sought the help of Democratic Party veteran campaigner

Ann Richards, pleading with her over a lunch meeting for assistance.

Richards agreed to manage the campaign.

Weddington, Sarah Ragle 689

Attorney Sarah Wed-

dington won the Roe

v. Wade case, which

guaranteed women’s

right to privacy in

their reproductive

choices, before the

U.S. Supreme Court

when she was only

twenty-six years old

(Archive Photos)

Weddington’s legislative race encountered an obstacle when she

learned that she would have to argue Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme

Court a second time the month before election day. Even though Wed-

dington had to leave the state to argue the case, in November 1972 she

won the legislative race. During her three terms in the Texas House of

Representatives, she worked with Kay Bailey Hutchison to pass a bill that

reformed Texas rape laws, passed an equal credit bill for women, worked

with Eddie Bernice Johnson to pass a pregnancy leave bill for teachers, and

prevented passage of antiabortion legislation. In January 1973, Wedding-

ton won the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. Abortion be-

came a legal option for women wanting to end their pregnancies.

Appointed general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in

1977, she served as assistant to President Jimmy Carter from 1978 to 1981,

identifying women for the federal judiciary and other high-level appoint-

ments. Weddington lobbied the U.S. Senate for an extension to ratify the

Equal Rights Amendment and received a great deal of credit for the suc-

cess of the effort. Following the passage of the extension, she helped de-

velop a strategy for ratification of the amendment, but it failed in 1982.

Weddington also helped implement programs to grant women equal

treatment in the military, in their attempts to secure loans, and in the de-

livery of social programs. She was cochair of the U.S. delegation to the

1980 United Nations Mid-Decade Conference on Women in Copenhagen,

Denmark.

Born in Abilene, Texas, Weddington earned her bachelor of science

degree from McMurry College in 1965 and her law degree from the Uni-

versity of Texas in 1967. She then worked on the American Bar Associa-

tion’s Special Committee on the Reevaluation of Ethical Standards. She is

the author of A Question of Choice (1992).

See also Abortion; Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974; Equal Rights

Amendment; Hutchison, Kathryn (Kay) Ann Bailey; Johnson, Eddie Bernice;

Richards, Ann Willis; Roe v. Wade; State Legislatures, Women in

References New York Times, 6 November 1978; Weddington, A Question of

Choice (1992).

Weeks v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company (1969)

In Weeks v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, the first sex

discrimination case to reach an appellate court, Lorena Weeks challenged

Southern Bell’s contention that sex was a bona fide occupational qualifi-

cation for the job of switchman. Southern Bell argued that the job was

strenuous, that a switchman was occasionally required to work alone dur-

ing late-night hours, and that the State of Georgia’s protective legislation

prevented women from holding jobs that required them to lift more than

690 Weeks v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company

thirty pounds. Weeks argued that the state’s protective policy and South-

ern Bell’s hiring policy violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by

discriminating against her on the basis of sex.

The Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals noted that Georgia

had replaced the limit on the amount that women could lift with a

broader policy. The appeals court agreed with Weeks, saying: “Labeling a

job ‘strenuous’ does not meet the burden of proving that the job falls

within the bona fide occupational qualification exception.” It further

noted that the company’s concerns about women working late at night

conflicted with the reality that other women employees were called in to

work during emergencies. The court wrote: “Title VII rejects just this type

of romantic paternalism as unduly Victorian and instead invests individ-

ual women with the power to decide whether or not to take on unroman-

tic tasks.” The court found that Southern Bell’s refusal to hire women for

the job of switchman violated Title VII.

See also Bona Fide Occupational Qualification; Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title

VII; Employment Discrimination

References Weeks v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, 408 F.2d

228 (1969).

Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975)

In Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a Social

Security benefit plan that provided benefits to the widow and children of

a deceased male wage earner but that did not provide the same benefits to

the widower and children of a deceased female wage earner was unconsti-

tutional.

In the case, Paula Wiesenfeld had died giving birth to her son Jason,

who was eligible for Social Security benefits, but her widowed husband

Stephen Wiesenfeld was denied benefits that would have been available to

a widow. Stephen Wiesenfeld claimed that the policy was a form of illegal

discrimination.

The Court agreed with Wiesenfeld’s argument as presented by Ruth

Bader Ginsburg, writing in response: “Given the purpose of enabling the

surviving parent to remain at home to care for a child, the gender-based

distinction . . . is entirely irrational. The classification discriminates among

surviving children solely on the basis of the sex of the surviving parent.”

The Court found that the policy violated the due process clause of the

Fifth Amendment.

See also Ginsburg, Ruth Joan Bader

References Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636 (1975).

Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld 691

Weis, Jessica McCullough (1901–1963)

Republican Jessica Weis of New York served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 3 January 1959 to 3 January 1963. Weis entered politics in

1936, holding local party offices, and in 1938 she was appointed vice pres-

ident of the National Federation of Republican Women and was president

from 1941 to 1942. She was Republican national committeewoman for

New York from 1944 to 1963.

An associate campaign manager in Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948 presi-

dential campaign, she worked to gain women’s support for him. Ap-

pointed to the National Defense Advisory Council in 1953 and reapp-

pointed in 1956 and 1960, she was an advisor to the U.S. delegate to the

Inter-American Commission on Women in 1954.

A fiscal conservative, Congresswoman Weis opposed federal spend-

ing for veterans’ housing, airport and power plant construction, and wa-

ter pollution control. She supported an equal rights amendment and

urged an end to wage discrimination against women. Her health pre-

vented her from seeking a third term.

Born in Chicago, Jessica Weis attended Madame Rieffel’s French

School in New York City from 1916 to 1917.

See also Congress, Women in; Equal Rights Amendment

References H. W. Wilson, Current Biography Yearbook, 1959 (1959); Office of

the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in Congress, 1917–1990

(1991).

Welfare

Welfare, or assistance to people in need, emerged as a significant federal

program during the Depression in the 1930s. One aspect of a wide array

of policies intended to help the U.S. economy recover from the Depres-

sion, welfare programs included employment opportunities, assistance to

blind persons, maternal and child health grants, and Aid to Families with

Dependent Children (AFDC). Over the next six decades, some of the pro-

grams were discarded or replaced, and new programs were added.

AFDC, perhaps the most widely recognized welfare program, began

as a small program to provide cash assistance to mothers of young chil-

dren whose fathers had died. Intended to be only a temporary program,

AFDC developed into one of the largest of the nation’s welfare programs

and served approximately 14 million people in 1994. Its purposes were to

encourage keeping children in their homes (instead of placing them in

orphanages, other facilities, or foster care), to strengthen family life, and

to promote self-supporting families. Other federal welfare programs in-

clude child support enforcement, child care, food stamps, Medicaid, and

Supplemental Security Income.

692 Weis, Jessica McCullough

Critics of welfare programs, especially of AFDC, charged that their

financial burden was detrimental to the economy and that they pro-

moted dependency and discouraged employment. Supporters argued

that the costs associated with employment, including child care, trans-

portation, and the potential loss of government-supported health insur-

ance, created disincentives to employment and that changes in AFDC

would need to include education, employment assistance, and other

services. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconcilia-

tion Act of 1996 instituted the greatest changes in welfare policy in the

United States since the 1960s and addressed many of the issues raised by

critics and supporters.

See also Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act

of 1996

References “Current Programs” (1995); “Welfare Overview” (1995).

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell (1862–1931)

Ida Wells-Barnett crusaded against lynching, worked in the black women’s

club movement, and helped found the Alpha Suffrage Club, the National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National As-

sociation of Colored Women. Born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi,

Wells-Barnett taught school to help support her five brothers and sisters

following the deaths of her parents in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. In

1883 and 1884, she attended Fisk University and the Lemoyne Institute.

Wells-Barnett’s protests against segregation began on a train trip

from Memphis to Woodstock in 1884, when a railroad conductor or-

dered her to move to the smoking car. Having purchased a first-class

ticket, she refused and was forcibly removed. She sued the railroad and

won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision in 1887 and

ruled against her.

From 1884 to 1891, she taught school in Memphis, Tennessee. Wells-

Barnett became a reporter for and part-owner of the Memphis Free Speech

and Headlight in 1889 and gained a wide reputation for her militant opin-

ions. She lost her teaching job in 1891 for writing articles critical of the

education offered to African American children.

Following the lynching of three African American friends in 1892,

Wells-Barnett began an editorial campaign against lynching. In one arti-

cle she wrote: “Nobody in this section of the country believes the old

thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women.” After writing the arti-

cle, Wells-Barnett left for Philadelphia. When the article appeared, a mob

broke into the newspaper’s building and destroyed the presses. Wells-Bar-

nett was warned not to return to Memphis.

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell 693

She moved to New York City and be-

came a staff writer for New York Age, where

she wrote and lectured about lynching.

Wells-Barnett published two pamphlets on

lynching, Southern Horrors in 1892 and A

Red Record in 1895, a statistical account of

lynchings from 1892 to 1894. She reported

that African American men were accused

of rape in less than one-third of the cases,

and even fewer of the men were found

guilty. She revealed that in some situations

white women initiated consensual sex with

African American men and that white men

had raped African American women with

apparent impunity. Wells-Barnett found

that when African Americans resisted

mobs by fighting back, the violence dimin-

ished. She wrote: “A Winchester rifle

should have a place of honor in every black home. When the white man

knows he runs as great a risk biting the dust every time his Afro-American

victim does, he will have greater respect for Afro-American life.”

Secretary of the National Afro-American Council from 1898 to 1902,

Wells-Barnett helped organize a conference on African Americans, helped

establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo-

ple (NAACP) in 1909, and served on its executive committee. She founded

in 1910 and was president of the Negro Fellowship League, a settlement

house and community center for southern black migrants to Chicago. In

1913 she started the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first African American

woman suffrage group, and led the club in the 1916 Chicago suffrage pa-

rade to the Republican National Convention. In 1930, she unsuccessfully

ran on the Republican ticket for the Illinois Senate.

Wells-Barnett wrote Mob Rule in New Orleans (1900), The Arkansas

Race Riot (1920), and other books.

See also Alpha Suffrage Club; Antilynching Movement; National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People, Women in the; National Association

of Colored Women

References Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on

Race and Sex in America (1984); Wells-Barnett, Crusade for Justice (1970).

Westwood, Frances Jean Miles (1923–1997)

Jean Westwood was chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)

in 1972, the first woman to chair either of the major political parties’

694 Westwood, Frances Jean Miles

Journalist Ida Wells-

Barnett carried out a

one-woman crusade

in the editorial pages

against the lynching

practices of the Deep

South (Courtesy:

University of Chicago)

national committees. Westwood began her political career at the precinct

level in the mid-1950s and worked on the staff of a member of Congress

from 1964 to 1967. She served as vice chair of the Democratic Party in Utah,

cochair of a voter registration campaign, campaign manager for a congres-

sional candidate, and beginning in 1968, national committeewoman for

Utah. The first member of the DNC to endorse Senator George McGovern’s

candidacy for president, she helped him build his organization.

When George McGovern became the Democratic Party’s presidential

candidate in 1972, he chose Westwood to chair the party. McGovern lost

to incumbent president Richard Nixon, and the DNC replaced Westwood

shortly after the election. She continued to be active in the party until

1988.

Born in Price, Utah, Westwood attended Carbon College and took

classes at other colleges and universities.

References New York Times, 15 July 1972, 23 August 1997.

Wexler, Anne Levy (b. 1930)

Democratic Party activist Anne Wexler is considered one of the most pow-

erful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. She began her political career working

in congressional and presidential races in the 1960s. She supported Jimmy

Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign and worked on his transition team

following his election. Appointed deputy undersecretary of commerce, she

coordinated the department’s programs and field operations and chaired

the President’s Task Force on Women Business Owners. Appointed an as-

sistant to the president in 1978, she was the only woman on President

Jimmy Carter’s senior staff. As assistant for public liaison, Wexler’s re-

sponsibilities included working with the business community and other

interest groups to build public support for the president’s programs and

policies. Wexler founded a government relations firm in 1981.

Born in New York City, Wexler earned her bachelor of arts degree

from Skidmore College in 1951. She began her political activism while a

student, canvassing door-to-door during Harry S. Truman’s 1948 presi-

dential campaign.

References New York Times, 12 July 1972, 24 November 1978.

Whitman, Christine Todd (b. 1946)

Republican Christine Todd Whitman became governor of New Jersey in

1994, the first woman governor of the state, and was reelected in 1997 for a

second four-year term. A fiscal conservative,Whitman promised voters dur-

ing her first campaign for governor that she would reduce taxes by 30 per-

cent, a pledge she kept and one that helped her when she sought reelection.

Whitman, Christine Todd 695

Born in New York state, Whitman is the daughter of active and in-

fluential Republicans. Her mother Eleanor Todd served on the Republican

National Committee for a decade, was the committee’s vice chair, and

chaired the New Jersey Federation of Republican Women. Her father

chaired the New Jersey Republican State Central Committee for eleven

years. Whitman’s political ventures began when she was a child selling

lemonade to benefit Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1952 presidential campaign.

Whitman earned her bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College

in 1968 and worked on Nelson Rockefeller’s campaign for the Republican

nomination for president. Later that year, she worked at the Republican

National Committee, where she developed the Listening Post project and

toured the country to learn the reasons why college students were not at-

tracted to the Republican Party. She later worked at the Office of Eco-

nomic Opportunity. During the 1972 presidential campaign, she worked

for the Committee to Reelect the President, organizing support for Presi-

dent Richard Nixon among senior citizens.

Whitman first ran for public office in 1982, when she was elected to

the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, which is comparable

to a county board of supervisors. She served on the board for five years,

696 Whitman, Christine Todd

Christine Todd

Whitman (R-NJ) was

elected the first

woman governor of

New Jersey, 1994

(Corbis/Robert

Maass)

becoming both deputy director and director in that period. She super-

vised the construction of a new county courthouse, developed an open

space program, and helped establish the county’s first homeless shelter.

In 1988 Governor Todd Kean appointed Whitman president of the

New Jersey Board of Utilities. In response to questionable actions by pre-

vious members of the board, Whitman developed a code of ethics for the

board. Among her public policy goals for the board was maintaining low

utility rates.

Whitman unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990. Her defeat

by only two percentage points convinced her that she could win the gov-

ernor’s seat in 1993. She hosted a biweekly radio talk show, wrote a news-

paper column to maintain the name recognition she had developed, and

worked for candidates at every level, building a political base for her

planned gubernatorial campaign. Her success on election day was marred

within a few days by a scandal created by her campaign manager, Ed

Rollins. Rollins told a group of reporters that the campaign had spent

$500,000 dissuading African American ministers from endorsing incum-

bent governor Jim Florio and paying Democratic workers to stay home on

election day. Whitman immediately responded that she had no knowledge

of the activities and began an internal investigation of her campaign.

Rollins soon recanted and said that he had not done the things he had

said. The New Jersey attorney general and the U.S. attorney general both

investigated Whitman’s campaign but could find no evidence of the ille-

gal practices.

During her first year in office, Whitman cut income taxes 10 percent,

eliminated 400 state jobs, and abolished the Department of Higher Educa-

tion and the Office of the Public Advocate. The cuts included reductions in

contributions to the state pension fund but also made New Jersey more ap-

pealing to business. As her first term continued, Whitman reduced income

taxes by a total of 30 percent, privatized the Department of Motor Vehicles,

and changed the state’s Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.

Between 1994 and 1999, Whitman helped New Jersey gain a net increase of

more than 300,000 jobs through her economic development programs.

Whitman also reformed the state’s juvenile justice program, establishing a

system of preventive programs, sanctions, and aftercare for youthful of-

fenders. The program included a new juvenile boot camp, a facility for fe-

male juvenile offenders, and funding for local prevention programs.

A moderate Republican, Whitman supports abortion rights, which

has placed her outside the party’s prevailing sentiments but not outside

the party’s favor. In 1995, she became the first woman and the first gover-

nor to deliver the Republican Party’s response to a presidential State of the

Union address.

Whitman, Christine Todd 697