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I’m No Lady; I’m a Member of Congress

Women Pioneers on Capitol Hill, 1917–1934

Media Curiosities

The women of the 71st Congress (1929&ndash;1931) pose on the Capitol steps. From left to right they are: (front row) <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=191">Pearl Oldfield</a> of Arkansas, <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=209">Edith Nourse Rogers</a> of Massachusetts, <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=198">Ruth Baker Pratt</a> of New York, and <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=163">Ruth Hanna McCormick</a> of Illinois; (back row) <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=192">Ruth Bryan Owen</a> of Florida, <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=187">Mary Norton</a> of New Jersey, and <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=123">Florence Kahn</a> of California.The women of the 71st Congress (1929–1931) pose on the Capitol steps. From left to right they are: (front row) Pearl Oldfield of Arkansas, Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, Ruth Baker Pratt of New York, and Ruth Hanna McCormick of Illinois; (back row) Ruth Bryan Owen of Florida, Mary Norton of New Jersey, and Florence Kahn of California.Images courtesy of the Library of Congress

By virtue of their gender, the earliest women in Congress were media celebrities: chronicled, quoted, and scrutinized. Perhaps none received more attention than Rankin, whose 1916 election catapulted her into the national spotlight. Manufacturing companies sought her endorsement; cranks sent offers of marriage. She received an unusually large amount of visitors and mail—by one account, 300 letters daily.18 These demands required her to hire three secretaries to join her in her one-room office.19 Rankin agreed to write a monthly column for Chicago’s Sunday Herald, and she signed a lucrative contract ($500 per lecture) with a New York speakers bureau. “To be suddenly thrown into so much limelight was a great shock,” Rankin recalled. “It was very hard for me to understand, to realize that it made a difference what I did and didn’t do from then on.”20

An eager press corps soon pegged Alice Mary Robertson of Oklahoma, the second woman in Congress, as a font of colorful quotes. Shortly before assuming office in 1921, Robertson told a reporter that she intended to be a model House freshman: fastidious and silent. “I would rather be like a humble little light that shines a long distance across the prairies than a brilliant sky rocket that flashes in midair for a few seconds and then falls to the earth with a dull thud,” Robertson said. “If people think that I am going to do something sensational they are mistaken. I am a conservative. The platform upon which I was elected is: ‘I am a Christian. I am an American. I am a Republican.’” But her propensity to speak her mind made “Miss Alice” the object of intense press coverage. The matronly Congresswoman later declared that Members who wasted taxpayers’ money with verbose speeches and parliamentary stalling tactics ought to be “spanked good and plenty.”21

Margaret Speaks, daughter of Representative John C. Speaks of Ohio, sells peanuts to Representative <a href="/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=209">Edith N. Rogers</a> of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Senator Frederick H. Gillett (former Speaker of the House) at the 1926 baseball game between congressional Democrats and Republicans.Margaret Speaks, daughter of Representative John C. Speaks of Ohio, sells peanuts to Representative Edith N. Rogers of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Senator Frederick H. Gillett (former Speaker of the House) at the 1926 baseball game between congressional Democrats and Republicans.Images courtesy of the Library of Congress

Other women were thrust into the spotlight as the offspring of prominent political families. The New York Times and the Washington Post ran lengthy feature stories on two famous daughters whose fathers were avowed political enemies: Ruth Bryan Owen (a daughter of Democratic giant William Jennings Bryan) and Ruth McCormick (the daughter of Mark Hanna). During her 1928 campaign, McCormick became the first woman featured on the cover of Time magazine.22 Before an adoring press gallery, Owen and McCormick entered the House arm in arm on April 15, 1929, the first day of the 71st Congress (1929–1931), and were sworn in as new Representatives.23

Those uncomfortable with Washington social circles or reticent about the media glare received less charitable press coverage, which often focused on a Member’s mannerisms, attire, and physical attributes rather than on substantive legislative issues. Katherine Langley was singled out for her flamboyance. “She offends the squeamish by her unstinted display of gypsy colors on the floor and the conspicuousness with which she dresses her bushy blue-black hair,” wrote one reporter.24 Representative Mae Nolan complained that she was regularly misquoted and misrepresented. The press took unmerciful delight in noting that she had taken up golf in her quest for a slimmer figure. Gradually, Congresswoman Nolan withdrew from the spotlight, eventually shunning floor speeches, lobbyists, and especially, journalists. When she retired after a brief House career, the Washington Post declared “in Congress 2 years, she did no ‘talking.’”25

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Footnotes

  1. Norma Smith, Jeannette Rankin: America’s Conscience (Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2002): 115.
  2. Smith, Jeannette Rankin: 115. The House Office Building had been opened in 1908 and was meant to accommodate all House Members and committees. By and large, each Member was assigned a one-room office.
  3. Quoted in Smith, Jeannette Rankin: 104; see also, Hannah Josephson, Jeannette Rankin, First Lady In Congress—A Biography (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974): 57. A highly unusual feature of the lecture contract was that if she voted against a war resolution, the contract could be terminated. Josephson, Jeannette Rankin: 62–63; 67.
  4. “‘Miss Alice’ To Be Meek in Congress,” 26 February 1921, Washington Post: 10; “Spankings to Silence Talkative In House Advocated by Miss Alice,” 5 March 1923, Washington Post: 4.
  5. Miller, Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics: 193. McCormick appeared in the 23 April 1928 edition, weeks after her Illinois primary victory. Senator Margaret Chase Smith appeared on a Time cover in 1959, marking the 40th anniversary of the suffrage amendment.
  6. Winifred Mallon, “Another Hanna Looks to the Senate,” 9 June 1929, New York Times: SM4.
  7. Hope Chamberlin, A Minority of Members: Women in the U.S. Congress (New York: Praeger, 1973): 64.
  8. Constance Drexel, “Mrs. Nolan No ‘Crusader’; Mrs. Barrett Gains Note,” 24 February 1924, Washington Post: ES 3; “In Congress 2 Years, She Did No ‘Talking,’” 5 March 1925, Washington Post: 9.