Celebrate the First Woman Speaker—And Then Ask Why It’s Taken So Long

by Tula Connell, Jan 4, 2007

In 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. Ninety years later, Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the House.

Back in the 1970s, the slogan “A Woman’s Place is in the House…and Senate” was introduced as a rallying cry for a reinvigorated women’s movement. At the time, it sounded fresh—and even clever. But already by the 1970s, the momentum for women’s political progress in this nation had long been backsliding from its initial promise.

As we celebrate today the election of the nation’s first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, it’s also important to take a look at just how far we as a nation haven’t come as well.

When compared with western European nations, the United States started out ahead of many countries in granting its citizens the franchise to vote. Between 1840 and 1847, nearly every state government had given all white males the right to vote. Only two states still had any significant property qualifications. Restrictions on voting by Catholics and non-Christians were eliminated. In a few states, even immigrants not yet naturalized were given the right to vote. The last state to change, North Carolina, abandoned the property test in 1856.

Meanwhile, to give just one comparison, white male farm workers in a country as advanced as Great Britain didn’t get to vote until 1885.

The progress for U.S. women also was relatively fast-tracked here, with the Wyoming territory making it legal for women to vote in statewide contests as early as 1869. By 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. At age 37, Rankin, a Republican, represented Montana, following an election in which her brother served as campaign manager.

Three years later, voters passed the 19th Amendment, giving U.S. women the constitutional right to vote—even as Switzerland waited until 1971 to approve the franchise for women. None of these fights was easy, and women faced ongoing opposition and marginalization as they sought a place at the national table. But progress back then was at high speed in comparison to the minute political gains women have made in recent decades.

So what happened? Why, by the end of the 109th Congress in 2006, have only 203 women served in the U.S. Congress, when tens of thousands of men have been elected? And how is it that nations as diverse as Iceland and Chile have been (or, in Chile’s case are) headed by women, while only today is the world’s most advanced industrialized nation celebrating the election of the first female speaker of the House?

While initially lagging behind the United States in granting citizens the franchise, Britain, like many other nations, has gone on to elect women to top spots: Margaret Thatcher elected British prime minister in 1979, Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India in 1966, Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel in 1969, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany in 2005, Elisabeth Domitien, prime minister of the Central African Republic, in 1975…

As Nancy Pelosi is sworn into the House speakership today, it’s helpful to look at the response this “first” for America’s women has generated among U.S. opinion makers, male and female—a response that political psychologist Martha Burk describes as “genderizing her behavior.”

When Pelosi selected Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes over California Rep. Jane Harman to head the House Intelligence Committee, Maureen Dowd was among the media elite emphasizing how Pelosi’s decision rested on personal differences rather than Harman’s stand on the war in Iraq or other substantive issues that surely would have weighed more heavily had two men been involved. 

As Burk notes, MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews asked on national TV if Pelosi was “going to castrate” Rep. Steny Hoyer, the new House majority whip.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reporter Anne Kornblut described the series of events held this week to commemorate Pelosi’s pathbreaking election as the “Pelosi-palooza.” Such failed attempts at “cuteness” instead fall squarely in the category of derision and belittlement.

While not excusable, comments by Republican male presidential wannabees drooling over the limelight garnered by the first female speaker are at least somewhat understandable. Such as those reported recently in The Washington Post on this week’s events in honor of the new speaker:

Mike Murphy, a Republican political consultant and former adviser to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), said the four-day extravaganza is excessive. “What? No fireworks?” he said. “I’m glad they canceled the tickertape parade. They probably couldn’t find biodegradable tickertape and a hybrid convertible.”

But the conscious and unconscious media fixation on female politicians’ clothes, hairstyles, personalities and the countless words used to denigrate and deny women the status they have rightfully achieved, shape how the public perceives women in power—and ultimately, how long it takes for us to get in power.

When discussing the victory speeches of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pelosi during the network’s election coverage, Matthews also said that Pelosi will “have to do the good fight with the president over issues,” and then asked: “How does she do it without screaming? How does she do it without becoming grating?”

Interesting question, Chris. How, in fact, can we do it without screaming?

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