Congresswoman Elizabeth Hanford Dole grew up in North Carolina in the small town of Salisbury ,and was born to a wholesaler on July 29, 1936. Dole had a privileged childhood and had the opportunity to study private balled and horseback riding amongst other things. As she grew up she became a model student succeeding in academics as well as extracurricular activities, such as drama and student government; and even got elected as president of her freshman class. After high school like many girls her age, Dole proceeded to go to college where she followed in her brothers footsteps and attended Duke University where she majored in political science in 1958 after which she did post-graduate work at Oxford in 1959 (“San Diego 96”). Some of her many accomplishments while there was to be elected May queen, Student body president, and even got accepted into an undergraduate honors society by the name of Phi Beta Kappa.
Dole went on to Harvard were she received her masters in 1960 and then in 1965 graduated Harvard Law School. She was one among twenty-five other female students in a class of five hundred. Although Dole was a briefly employed in private law practice in 1967 working for the poor, her main devotion soon became public service (“San Diego 96). Once graduated Elizabeth went off to Washington, D.C. There she worked in several government agencies such as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the U.S office of Consumer Affairs in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson administration, among others. Dole gained a reputation as a supporter of consumer rights.
Dole was nominated by Nixon to be one of the five commissioners on the federal Trade Commission in 1973 (“National Women’s History Museum”). She became known ...
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...When it came to government issues Dole kept her religious views private and proceeded to make a decision for the better of the country; not her religion.
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• "Elizabeth Dole: a brief portrait of the woman beside Bob Dole." San Diego '96 . All politics CNN TIME , 1996. Web. 25 May 2011. .
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I am choosing to write my essay focusing on Nancy Pelosi, arguably one of the most influential politicians of her time, and certainly one of the outstanding ladies of the political world. Not only was she the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House, she also was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls. She ranks with the most consequential speakers, certainly in the last 75 years.”(Burstyn) Nancy Pelosi was born on March 26th in 1940 and she has represented San Francisco for approximately 29 years. This however is not by far her most notable achievement, speaker of the house aside, under her guidance the 111th US Congress was said to be the most productive in the history of its conception. This means that she was able to oversee the 111th Congress in a manner that minimized the terrible three, collective action problems, commitment problems, and coordination problems. These problems all come down to the inability to make decisions, and are extremely ponderous to efficiency. She ran it as famously, even though the house was so divided when she took the pos...
By April 1933, when Governor Herbert H. Lehman signed the new minimum wage bill for working women, the agenda pursued by the Women's Joint Legislative Conference began to assume national proportions for three reasons. First, the election of New York State Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in November of 1932 presented an opportunity for progressive-minded reformers. Second, Conference leaders such as Molly Dewson, Frances Perkins, and Rose Schneiderman left the New York scene to pursue a reform agenda in Washington, D.C. Dewson became the head of the Women's Division of the national Democratic Party, while Perkins assumed the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor, the first female cabinet officer in American history. Schneiderman found herself appointed to the National Recovery Administration (NRA) after Congress created the agency in June 1933. Finally, and most importantly, a powerful ally helped facilitate the continuation of the Conference agenda. Eleanor Roosevelt, the new First Lady, effectively promoted women in the New Deal. As her biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook shows, Roosevelt worked with Molly Dewson to compile a list of qualified women for federal appointments. "By 1935," Cook notes, "over fifty women had been appointed to ranking national positions and hundreds to leadership positions in various government agencies on the state and local level."
Eleanor not only helped envision the future, but also secured the future of many people. She heavily influenced the construction of the New Deal programs, which focused on the “rights of women, civil rights, workers, and youth programs” (“Eleanor Roosevelt: The Worlds First Lady"). In 1945, she continued her career by joining the U.S. Delegate to the United Nations and became head of its Human Rights Committee (“Eleanor Roosevelt: The Worlds First Lady"). She was born into a prominent family, and opposite of what her family wanted her to do she became an activist in the social reform. In order to envision the future, a leader must imagine the possibilities and find a common purpose. For Eleanor, there were not many possibilities but there was most definitely a common purpose. She helped achieve and was apart many reforms like women’s suffrage that was ratified in 1920. Through this accomplishment we can see Eleanor’s ability to lead and help accomplish a very important
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Politics in Progressive Era Politics." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. .
In her first term in office, she was successful in including provisions in major legislation to expand housing opportunities for low-income people and to assist small business owners and farmers. She is an active member of the Congressional Human Right
Saari, Peggy, ed. Prominent Women of the 20th Century. Volume 4. New York: International Thompson Publishing Company, 1996.
“Thus had died and been laid to rest in the most quiet, unostentatious way the most useful and distinguished woman America had yet produced,” (Wilson, Pg. 342).
Schiff, Karenna Gore. Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America. New York: HYPERION, 2005. Print.
Angela Davis grew up surrounded by politically opinionated, educated, and successful family members who influenced her ideals and encouraged her development and ambition. Her father attended St Augustine’s College, a historically black school in North Carolina (Davis 20). Her brother, Ben Davis, was a successful football player who was a member of teams such as the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions (Davis 23). Her mother, Sallye Davis, was substantially involved in the civil rights movement and was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Davis 42). In addition, her mother joined the Southern Negro Youth Congress which had strong ties to the Communist Party. This involvement greatly influenced Davis as she had many associations with members of the party which later shaped her political views (“Complexity, Activism, Optimism: An Interview with Angela Y. Davis”).
Ruth Ginsburg was born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. Ginsburg’s grew up in a low-income home. She was taught the importance of education and independence. Some of Ruth’s earliest memories are of going to the public library with her mother, trips that imbued her with a desire to read and a love of learning. Although her mother did not go to college she still did everything could to influence Ruth in the right direction. Her mother, Cecelia, instead of going to college worked in a garment factory to help for the education of her sons. Growing up Ruth admired the selflessness of her mother.
“Prosperity, Self-Government, and `Moral Clarity' (1996 Republican National Platform).” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. 17 Aug. 1996: 2317-2336.
today as a great journalist and activist. Her organizations that she formed long ago such
Grace Abbott was born November 17, 1878 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Grace was one of four children of Othman A. and Elizabeth Abbott. There’s was a home environment that stressed religious independence, education, and general equality. Grace grew up observing her father, a Civil War veteran in court arguing as a lawyer. Her father would later become the first Lt. Governor of Nebraska. Elizabeth, her mother, taught her of the social injustices brought on the Native Americans of the Great Plains. In addition, Grace was taught about the women’s suffrage movement, which her mother was an early leader of in Nebraska. During Grace’s childhood she was exposed to the likes of Pulitzer Prize author Willa Cather who lived down the street from the Abbott’s, and Susan B. Anthony the prominent civil rights leader whom introduced wom...
In the “Declaration of Conscience,” Margaret Chase Smith addresses the American public and the United States Senate during a time of political unrest. Communist accusations and a “national feeling of fear” has brought upon this speech. Even with an upcoming election, the Republican Party decides a freshman woman senator would speak to the public, an uncommon practice at the time . In this paper, I will argue that Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” proves her credibility as a woman politician. Smith uses a masculine tone, simple diction, and repetition to prove to Americans and the Senate that she is a strong political figure.
2. Nilges, Thorston. "Gender Inequality in Politics." Koed.hu. N.p., 2005. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. .