Votes for Women” button from the women’s suffrage movement, unknown date. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.
When the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, men ran the country. There were no women serving in the United States Congress or the president’s cabinet. Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1916 (from Montana, where women had been voting since 1914), had lost her 1918 campaign for the Senate, and Oklahoma’s Alice Robertson would not be sworn in until 1921.
Before World War II, most women representatives and senators gained their seats as widows appointed to complete their husbands’ terms. Some declined to leave with their “placeholder” term expired and then went on to win elections in their own right and continue their careers as legislators. In the cabinet, whose members are nominated by the president, things moved more slowly. But in 1933, Frances Perkins (1882–1965) became the first woman in a presidential cabinet when Franklin D. Roosevelt named her secretary of labor.
A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Perkins lived in settlement houses, trained as a social worker, and worked as a consumer lobbyist. After witnessing New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, in which 146 workers—largely immigrant women and girls—died, she became a suffrage advocate and tackled issues surrounding labor, women, and children. In 1929, then-Governor Roosevelt named Perkins head of New York State’s Department of Labor; four years later, she would begin a stint as the longest-serving secretary of labor in history. Twenty years passed before a second woman was named a cabinet secretary, with Oveta Culp Hobby appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to head the newly formed Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. It took more than two decades longer for two or more women to serve in a cabinet at the same time. To date, two departments have still not been led by a woman: defense and veteran affairs.
After World War II, women increasingly ran for office rather than inheriting it, and the women of the Capitol grew in legislative experience and seniority. In the 1960s and 1970s, this core of women was joined by activists and politicians from the women’s and civil rights movements. Following the example of the Congressional Black Caucus formed in 1971, women members of Congress elected from different parties and representing different constituencies and governing philosophies united in 1977 to form the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues to discuss topics of mutual interest.
Over one hundred years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, there are more than a hundred and fifty women in Congress. Although more women are at the table, their numbers are still not equal to men’s. Doubtless, more women will follow the advice of Representative Shirley Chisholm: “If you wait for a man to give you a seat, you’ll never have one! If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”
Belva Lockwood (1830–1917)
Belva Ann Lockwood in 1913 by Nellie Mathes Horne. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of the Committee for “A Tribute to Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood” through Mrs. Anna Kelton Wiley, 1917.
The attorney and social justice activist Belva Ann Lockwood was a trailblazer for women’s rights and the first woman to run for president. As a teacher in the 1850s, she reduced gender inequality in education by implementing fitness and public speaking classes for girls. In 1879, after lobbying successfully for a congressional bill permitting women to argue before the Supreme Court, she became the first woman to do so. While campaigning for women’s right to vote, she ran twice for president (in 1884 and 1888) as the Equal Rights Party nominee.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995)
Margaret Chase Smith for President campaign button from 1968. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Ralph E. Becker Collection of Political Americana.
Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to have her name placed in consideration for nomination at a major political party’s national convention when she challenged Barry Goldwater to become the Republican presidential candidate in 1964. The senator from Maine is also remembered as the first member of Congress to speak out against the tactics of McCarthyism in 1950.
Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005)
“Bring U.S. Together. Vote Chisholm 1972, Unbought and Unbossed,” campaign poster from Shirley Chisholm’s run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Shirley Chisholm was first Black woman elected to Congress and the first to make a serious bid for the U.S. presidency in 1972. Her career in education in Brooklyn led her to champion educational reforms and antipoverty programs during her years in Congress (1969–1983). Assessing her life in public, she noted, “Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.”
Patsy Mink (1927–2002)
Leaflet from Patsy Mink’s 1968 election campaign. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Honorable Patsy T. Mink.
Patsy Takemoto Mink was the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian American woman to serve in Congress. As a State Representative for Hawai’i, Mink wrote the early draft of Title IX and worked to ensure the law’s passage. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that also receives federal money. In 1972, Mink entered the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate and sought the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
Geraldine Ferraro (1935–2011)
Geraldine Ferraro for VP pinback button from 1984. Image courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Avis R. Johnson.
Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice president in 1984 with Walter Mondale and became the first woman selected by a major political party for the presidential ticket. The three-term congresswoman’s reputation for successfully meshing her own liberal and feminist views with the more conservative views of her Queens, New York, constituents helped secure her nomination.
Sarah Palin (b. 1964)
Sarah Palin in 2010. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.
In 2006, Sarah Palin became the youngest governor in Alaska’s history, as well as the first woman to hold the position. John McCain chose her as his running mate in 2008, making her the first Republican woman to be nominated for Vice President. Despite losing the election, Palin’s public profile increased significantly during the campaign, and she became a prominent figure in political media.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (b. 1947)
“I’m with her” was one of the unofficial campaign slogans during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.
After serving as first lady, senator from New York, and secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton came one step closer to breaking what she had once called “the highest and hardest glass ceiling” when she ran for president on the Democratic ticket in 2016. Clinton was the first woman to receive the presidential nomination from one of the country’s two major political parties.
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This article was republished with permission from Smithsonian American Women: Remarkable Objects and Stories of Strength, Ingenuity, and Vision from the National Collection, edited by Victoria Pope and Christine Schrum, published by Smithsonian Books, 2019, p. 140-143. Updated 2024.
Buy the Smithsonian American Women book to learn more about American women’s history told through objects from the Smithsonian collection. Featuring more than 280 artifacts from 16 Smithsonian museums and archives, and more than 135 essays from 95 Smithsonian authors, this book tells women's history as only the Smithsonian can.
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By E. Claire Jerry, Lead Curator, Political History, Division of Political and Military History, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and Lisa Kathleen Graddy, Curator, Political History, Division of Political and Military History, Smithsonian National Museum of American History.