Women in Politics
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Representative Karen Bass (D-CA)
I. Officials bios
Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Karen Bass are some of the most celebrated women in the state of California. They both came from different backgrounds, regions, and time periods, not to mention, but they’ve helped shape the state of California to what it is today.
To start off, Dianne Feinstein was born in San Francisco, California, on June 22, 1933. She showed political interest at the age of 16, which then led her to go to Stanford University. At Stanford, she was involved with student government until she graduated in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history. After graduation, Feinstein worked in the California district attorney’s office, which then led to her being appointed by Governor Pat Brown to be a member of the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole until 1966. In 1968, she became a member of the San Francisco Committee on Crime. She was elected to the board of supervisors in 1969, and due to her receiving the highest vote, it led to her being the president of the board for 2 years, becoming the first woman to do so.
The political move that changed Feinstein’s career was the day the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, was assassinated. Feinstein was about to drop out in politics due to low confidence. A week later, she was appointed mayor. She went along to be the acting mayor, but then won election in 1979, which led to her being the first woman to be elected in San Francisco history. As mayor of San Francisco, she improved city services and leading the fight for LGBT citizens, however, she opposed a measure that would take away benefits, like insurance from registered domestic partners. This caused a rift between her and the LGBT community. After her last term as mayor, she was co-chair to the San Francisco Education’s Fund Permanent Fund. In 1990, she ran as the democratic candidate for governor of California, however losing to Senator Pete Wilson. Due to the Senator vacating his seat, Feinstein was able to be elected in 1992.
Karen Bass was born in Los Angeles, California, on October 3rd, 1953. She went to the University of Southern California and earned a degree in Health Sciences, later a Physician’s Assistant at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, nurse, and instructor. Bass’ started to become in her community due to civil rights protests that were taking place all over the country.
Due to the unrest across the nation, this led to Karen founding the Community Coalition after the Los Angeles Riots (1992). According to their website, the Community Coalition “works to help transform the social and economic conditions in South LA that foster addiction, crime, violence, and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy.”
Bass didn’t start a career until 2005, when she was elected a seat in the California’s State Assembly. She served the 47th district of Los Angeles and was quickly recruited to serve majority whip then majority floor leader. She was part of the African American Leadership Council and served as California’s Co-chair of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign. In 2008, Karen Bass made history when she became the first African American woman in the country to serve as Speaker of the California State Assembly. As speaker, she started infrastructure projects to create new jobs in the state, provide quality healthcare, expand opportunities for California’s youth, aided Californians who were affected by the recession.
II. Officials as Legislators
Dianne Feinstein has been a United States Senator from California since 1992. According to her campaign website, her key issues involve agriculture, drug caucus; the U.S. counternarcotics policy, economy; where she supports investments to create more jobs and comprehensive tac reform to incentivize growth and reduce the deficit, education, energy; where she promotes clean energy, protecting environmental resources, foreign affairs, supporting reducing costs for patience and families and making investments in research and disease prevention in health care, trade, and veterans. She’s involved in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is responsible for providing oversight of all U.S. intelligence agencies, and the Judiciary Committee, which she is a leader on a number of jurisdictions in the Senate.
She introduced a measure to ban assault weapons, which was then attached to a crime bill that was introduced by Senator Joe Biden, which then expired in 2004 (The Lioness in the Winter). Feinstein was heavily involved in the investigation involving CIA’s use of torture, after believing the CIA’s false claims of Iraq using weapons of mass destruction.
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