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Assembling, Amplifying, and Ascending

Recent Trends Among Women in Congress, 1977–2006

Committee and Party Leadership

The women who entered office in record numbers in the 1990s soon accrued seniority in committees and catapulted into top leadership posts. This trend ran counter to historical precedent, although arguably the most powerful and influential woman to head a committee was one of the first: Mary T. Norton chaired four House committees during the 1930s and 1940s—Labor, House Administration, District of Columbia, and Memorials. However, Norton’s experience was unusual and, tellingly, she never held a top leadership job in the Democratic Party during her 25 years in the House. As late as the spring of 1992, the iconic feminist Congresswoman Pat Schroeder observed that the wheels of sexual equality on Capitol Hill turned slowly. “It’s not revolutionary, it’s evolutionary,” Schroeder said. “We get some appointments, we get some this, we get some that. But to think that women get any power positions, that we’ve become the bull elephants, that we’re the kahunas or whatever, well, we’re not.”45

Unlike the third generation of women in Congress, the fourth generation often chose to confront the institution less directly. Whereas Bella Abzug’s generation worked against the congressional establishment to breach gender barriers, many women in the fourth generation worked for change from within the power structure. Women in the 1980s and early 1990s who moved into leadership posts did so largely by working within traditional boundaries—a time-honored approach that extended back to Mary Norton and Edith Nourse Rogers in the first generation of Congresswomen. The careers of Lynn Martin and Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut illustrate this tendency: Martin served as Vice Chair of the GOP Conference; Kennelly served as the Democratic Party’s Chief Deputy Whip (a position created for her) and eventually became Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus. Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro also possessed an ability to work with the House leadership, particularly Speaker Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts, in a way her male colleagues perceived as “nonthreatening.” As Ferraro’s colleague Marge Roukema observed, Ferraro “takes a feminist stand but works only within the art of the possible.”46 The Congresswoman’s pragmatism struck a balance that was pleasing to both Capitol Hill insiders and feminists. Betty Friedan, founder of NOW, judged that Ferraro was “no cream puff; she’s a tough dame.”47 Other women who were influential in their parties followed a similarly pragmatic approach. “I worry about marginalizing women in the institution,” said freshman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut in 1992. “It’s a very competitive place, and what you need to do is build coalitions, and since there are 29 women who don’t think alike, you build coalitions among women, and you build coalitions among men. If you sit there and say, ‘I’m a woman, we’re in the minority here,’ then you’re never going to get anywhere in this body.”48

Nevertheless, until 1992, women had been on the margins of institutional leadership. Fewer than 10 women had chaired full congressional committees, and just eight House and Senate women had held positions in the party leadership. The two highest-ranking women in House were still at considerable remove from the levers of power: Mary Rose Oakar was Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus and Lynn Martin was Vice Chair of the Republican Conference in the 99th and the 100th Congresses (1985–1989). The highest-ranking woman in Senate history was Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, whom GOP peers elected Chair of the Republican Conference in the 90th through the 92nd Congresses (1967–1973).

Three women led committees in the 104th Congress (1995–1997): Jan Meyers chaired the House Small Business Committee, Nancy Johnson chaired the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and Nancy Landon Kassebaum chaired the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Kassebaum’s post was particularly noteworthy, as she was the first woman in Senate history to head a major standing committee. However, by the end of the 104th Congress, Meyers, Johnson, and Kassebaum had either left their posts or retired from Congress. The only other women to chair congressional committees during this period were Senators Olympia Snowe (Small Business) and Susan Collins (Governmental Affairs) in the 108th and 109th Congresses (2003–2007).

But gradual changes in the 1990s had begun to alter the leadership makeup in ways that portended greater involvement for women. From the 103rd through the 108th Congresses (1993–2005), 12 more women moved into the leadership ranks. Representatives Susan Molinari, Jennifer Dunn of Washington, Tillie Fowler of Florida, and Deborah Pryce of Ohio served as the Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference from the 104th through the 107th Congresses, respectively. In the 108th Congress, Pryce, who first won election to Congress in the “Year of the Woman,” became the highest-ranking woman in House GOP history when she was elected Chair of the Republican Conference. Her accomplishment was exceeded only by that of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California, who had succeeded Representative Sala Burton of California in the House after her death in 1987. In 2001, Pelosi won the Democratic Caucus contest for Whip. Little more than a year later, when Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri left the Democratic Party’s top post, Pelosi overwhelmingly won her colleagues’ support in her bid to become House Democratic Leader. This event garnered national and international attention.

Meanwhile, many of the women elected in the 1990s accrued seniority and, as a result, more important committee assignments. Though not yet apparent in the chairmanships of full committees, this power shift was evident in the chairmanships of subcommittees—a key prerequisite for chairing a full committee. Since the 80th Congress (1947–1949)—the first Congress for which such records are readily accessible—54 women have chaired House or Senate subcommittees. Three women—Margaret Chase Smith, Barbara Mikulski and Barbara Boxer—chaired subcommittees in both the House and the Senate. While just two women—Representatives Smith and Bolton—chaired House subcommittees in the 80th Congress (there were no women chairing Senate subcommittees at the time), by the 109th Congress in 2005, 10 women chaired subcommittees in the House and the Senate. More telling, roughly half the women in congressional history who chaired subcommittees attained these posts after 1992.

Representatives Pelosi and Pryce were on the leading edge of the spike in women elected to Congress. Pryce was elected to Congress at age 41 and attained her leadership post at 51. Pelosi arrived in the House at age 47 and was elected House Democratic Leader at 62. Behind these two leaders are a host of women who were elected in the latter 1990s. When elected, some of these women were 10 years younger than Pelosi and Pryce upon their arrival in Congress, giving them additional tenure to accrue seniority and power. If present trends continue and more and younger women are elected to Congress, women will likely become better represented in high committee posts and the leadership.

Footnotes

  1. Finkel, “Women on the Verge of a Power Breakthrough.”
  2. “Woman in the News: Liberal Democrat from Queens,” 13 July 1984, New York Times: A1.
  3. “A Team Player, Can a Liberal from Archie Bunker Country Make a Contender of Walter Mondale?” , 23 July 1984, Newsweek.
  4. Finkel, “Women on the Verge of a Power Breakthrough.”