Women's History Month - Women Who Paved the Way in Government (March 1-7, 2025)
(Courtesy Tabby Truxler)
The First Woman to Vote in the United States
Lydia Chapin Taft became the first
woman to vote in the nation when she cast her vote on October 30, 1756!
Uxbridge, Massachusetts town records reveal that Taft voted at town meetings
in 1758 and 1765. It would take the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before ALL women
had the right to vote in the United States!
(Courtesy Matthew Brady)
Victoria California Claflin Woodhull ran for President of the United
States during the election of 1872. She announced her candidacy on Saturday,
Apr. 2, 1870, in the New York Herald on page 8 in an article called “The Coming Woman.” She was self-nominated until Friday, May 10, 1872, when she was nominated by the
newly formed Equal Rights Party at Gilsey’s Apollo Hall in New
York City. Her nomination was ratified at convention on Thursday, June 6, 1872, at
Cooper Institute. She advocated for many things which we take for granted
today: the 8-hour workday, graduated income tax, social welfare programs, and
profit sharing.
(Public Domain)
The First African American Woman to Actively Pursue the Office of the President of the United States In
1969, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm became the first Black congresswoman and began the first of
seven terms. In 1972, she became the first Black woman to run
for U.S. President Chisholm became the
first African American to run for a major party's nomination for President of the
United States, making her also the
first woman ever to run for the Democratic
Party's presidential nomination In
her presidential announcement, Chisholm described herself as representative of
the people and offered a new articulation of American identity: "I am not
the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the
candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman and
equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people and my presence before
you symbolize a new era in American political history."
(Courtesy Adam Cuerden | US Library of Congress)
The First Woman to Hold a Federal Office in the
United States
Jeannette Pickering
Rankin of Montana was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1916 and
again in 1940. She was a tireless activist who worked to expand voting rights
for women, to ensure better working conditions for laborers across America, and
to improve health care for women and infants. Ultimately, she was a
pathbreaker. “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.”
(Courtesy Toshi Kazama)
The First Female United States Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day
O’Connor was appointed in 1981 by
President Ronald Reagan as a US Supreme Court Justice. She was often the deciding vote in key cases,
shaping major rulings on issues like abortion rights, affirmative action, and
states' rights. After retiring, Justice O'Connor dedicated herself to promoting civic
engagement and education, founding the iCivics program to teach students about
government and democracy. Before she joined the Supreme Court, O’Connor worked
as a deputy county attorney, ran a private law practice, and later served as an
assistant state attorney general. She served on the Arizona Court of Appeals
and the Maricopa County Superior
Court. She became
the first woman to serve as Arizona
Senate Majority Leader, making history as the highest-ranking
woman in a U.S. state legislature at the time.
(Courtesy US Library of Congress)
The First Female Governor in the United States
Nellie Davis Tayloe
Ross was an American educator and politician who
served as the first woman to
serve as governor of
a U.S. state. She
won the Wyoming election on November 4, 1924. As governor she advocated for
policies calling for tax cuts, government assistance for poor farmers, banking
reform, and laws protecting children, women workers, and miners.
She urged Wyoming to ratify a pending federal amendment prohibiting child labor.
Like her husband, she advocated the strengthening of prohibition laws. Appointed
by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on
May 3,1933, Nellie Ross became the first female Director of the United States Mint and served until 1953.
(Courtesy Sharice Davids)
The
First Native American Women Elected to Congress
Sharice Davids (left), a member of Wisconsin’s
Ho-Chunk Nation tribe, and Deb Haaland (right), a member of the Laguna
Pueblo tribe, became the first Native American women ever elected to Congress
in 2018. Davids won in Kansas' 3rd Congressional District, while Haaland won in
New Mexico's 1st Congressional District. Davids is an attorney and a former
professional mixed martial arts fighter, while Haaland is also an attorney and
previously served as her state’s Democratic Party chair.
"Native
women are left out of the conversation. And when you think about just the size
of a group, we make up a small portion of the population. That means that what
ends up happening is there’s just nobody in the room who knows anything about
Native issues." -Davids in Bustle interview
"Somebody has to be the first. Native
women, I mean, we've been on the frontlines for a long, long time. Think of all
the Native women who have fought for treaty rights and fishing rights and all
of those things." -Haaland in NPR interview
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