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Breaking Ground: Women in the U.S. Senate |
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The Senate Historical office has provided these pictures for a short history of women in the United States Senate. |
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88-year-old Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia, the first woman to serve in the United States Senate. Appointed to fill a vacancy in a symbolic concession to the women's suffrage movement, Felton served for just twenty-four hours, from noon on November 21 to noon on November 22, 1922. |
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Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas holds the distinction of being the first woman elected to the Senate. First appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway, she later won a special election in 1932. Surprising just about everyone, Hattie Caraway decided not to be just a "seat-warmer" and chose to run for reelection. She was reelected in 1936 and again in 1940, and served in the U.S. Senate until January 2, 1945. The first woman to chair a Senate standing committee (Committee on Enrolled Bills), Caraway also became the first woman to preside over the Senate on October 19, 1943. |
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Like Hattie Caraway, Rose McConnell Long entered the Senate following the 1935 death of her husband, assassinated Louisiana Senator Huey P. Long. Later, Louisiana was represented in the Senate by Rose and Huey Long's son, Russell, making them the only father-mother-son combination to serve in the Senate. |
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During Margaret Chase Smith's (left) long career in public service, she became the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the longest-serving woman in the Senate to date, and the first woman to seek nomination for president by a major party. The Republican from Maine served in the House of Representatives from 1940 to 1948, was elected to the Senate in 1948, and served from 1949 to 1973. In 1964, she challenged front-runner Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination for president. |
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