By the beginning of the 20th century, the National Women’s Party founded by Alice Paul, an American militant suffrage leader, organized a strike outside the White House. She encouraged by Emmeline Pankhurst while in England, and with the help of Lucy Burns, a member of the congressional union, controlled a series of protests against the Wilson Administration in Washington (Van Wagenen). The Wilson administration reacted to the protest on June 20, 1917, after the suffragists stated in a banner: “We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy which twenty million women denied the right to vote”, the manifestation occurred during the presence of a Russian delegation to the White House (Zahniser and Fry 175).
On August 14, 1917, another banner made a comparison between the plights of the German people with the American women. As a result of this kind of protest, many women arrested and most of them jailed (Ciment and Russell 163). In the same year on October 17, the suffragist Alice Paul put in jail for seven months and on the 30 October she started a hunger strike, but after a few days, she obliged to stop her strike (Stevens et al). President Wilson changed his opinion after many years of opposition, and in 1918, he supported women’s suffrage (Lemons 13).
On June 4, 1919, the Senate passed the amendment of giving women the right to vote, after much opposition of parties occurred in a debate around four hours; which democratic Senators opposed the decision. The Ayes comprised 36 (82%) Republicans and 20 (54%) Democrats. The Nays contains 8 (18%) Republicans and 17 (46%) Democrats. The Nineteenth Amendment ratified by sufficient states in 1920 ("Suffrage Wins in Senate.”).
II. Women Representation in Public Offices:
Since the early 1970s, women gradually increased their representation on local governing councils and in state legislatures and executive branches. In the 1990s, women gained their greatest representation in Congress. Also, they increased their number in State Legislature, the Cabinet, and the Judiciary, even their participation remained fewer compared with men who still dominated the public offices, but they are better than before the 1960s.
1. Women’s Representation in Congress:
Political observers stated that 1992 considered “the year of the women.” In that year, twenty women entered The House of Representatives and five women entered The Senate. The first women member of Congress called Jeannette Rankin, was a Republican of Montana, who took her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1917 (Schenken 163; Clark 67). Women in congress raised new issues and presented new perspectives on other issues because their life experiences differed from those of men, because the hoped to change their situation for better life ensuring the realities of women’s lives, voices, needs, and interests according to their experience, not to male interests (Dodson 2). Thus, the number of women serving in the U.S. Congress raised from the 1992 elections, and their number didn’t decline after the 1994 cycle, the 103rd and the 104th Congress. The 103rd Congress passed a record number of bills aimed at helping women, children, and families (Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues 1994). In both The House of Representative and The Senate, women comprised a smaller proportion of the majority party in the Republican-controlled 104th (7, 2 percent and 5, 7 percent) than in the Democratic-controlled 103rd (13, 6 percent and 8, 9 percent) (ibid). Women’s presence in Congress opened new opportunities for them to achieve their goals and demands.
According to the Congresswoman Nydia Velezquez that states:
… [B]efore I came here, I worked for a congressman….I saw that women’s issues were not part of the national agenda….It hasn’t changed. So [while] it is our responsibility to participate in every single issue…and every debate that we have here …if we don’t force others to focus on women’s issues…it will not be part of the debate (qtd in. Dodson).
In the 2000s, the number of women in Congress raised markedly. They held more seats, 56 of 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representative (13, 6 percent), and three of 100 U.S. senators and 3 of the 50 governors were women. In 2003, women elected Chairs of Democratic state parties in twelve states and Chairs of Republican state parties in thirteen states, and in 107th Congress (2001-2002), women headed the Democratic Party Campaign Committees; it helped the parties candidates to raise money and compete to raise the party’s representatives in the U.S. (the House of Representatives and the U.S Senate). For instance, Washington Senator Patty Murray chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and New York representative Nita Lowy chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees (Burrell 105).
Today, women held 23, 8 percent of state-level offices. In 2008, women appointed for just 16 percent of seats in the 110th U.S. Congress; 16 of the 100 Senate seats and 72 of the 435 House seats. In that year, women held various positions, such as, the position of governor (eight states), lieutenant governor (ten), attorney general( five), secretary of state (twelve), state financial officer (eleven), state auditor (six), state controller (four), chief state education official (eleven), commissioner of insurance (two), public service commissioner(five), and railroad commissioner (one). Despite this development, the halls of the Senate still dominated by men. Some opinions argue that it is a matter of preference. Women interested in issues related to family and social welfare, rather than national defense and international relations for that they stay out of politics or they focus their efforts on local offices and initiatives. Although these numbers may be disappointing but they represent an increase never seen in the (Carr 58-9).
2. Women in Presidential Cabinets:
The American National Government appointed only two elected members of the Executive Branch, and no woman ever served as president of the United States or as Vice President. Although some American presidents appointed women to their cabinets; the President Carter’s appointed 17 Women that received 13.5 percent of full-time positions and required the confirmation of the Senate. Thus, they received 9.0 percent of President Reagan's appointments. In October 1989, the President Bush appointed to some states granting office to women while others rarely elected women to high office. Yet, despite the intensifying representation of women in American government, the United States sought to increase the number of women’s representation within the Cabinet (Clark 67-8).
In 2003, twenty-nine women held Cabinet or Cabinet-level in the presidential administrations. While Democratic Presidents appointed sixteen of these women, the Republican Presidents appointed thirteen (Burrell 158). For instance, the President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Francis Perkins, was the first woman who held a Cabinet position, in 1933. Furthermore, presidents that succeeded the Roosevelt administration, like the President D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Roland Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton appointed five women to their cabinets (Schenken109). Women on the White House staff constituted from 6 percent during the Eisenhower Administration to 39 percent in the Clinton Presidency. Also, seven women served as assistants to the president in the first year of the Clinton Administration (qtd in. Burrell). Then, more women appointed such as Condoleezza rice as National Security Advisor, and Karen Huges as Councilor to the President in 2001 at the beginning of George W. Bush Administration. In fact, women finally achieved a presence in the inner circle of White House staff (Burrell 169).
3. Women in the State Legislatures:
Women's representation in the State Legislatures increased slowly but not necessarily steadily in the years between 1920 and 1970. Their number progressed gradually in the decade of the 1920s but it stopped during the Depression in 1930s. Also, another raise happened during World War II and continued to intensify through the 1950s. Then, another decline in the actual numbers of women legislators occurred in the 1960s, however, the number of women made up less than 4 percent of state legislators by 1970 (Clark 66). Furthermore, 1991 seen for the first time in the American History women served in every State Legislature in the nation; all the states except Nebraska, was unicameral, appointed at least, a woman in the House and one in the Senate. For instance, American woman to serve in a State Legislature was the Republican Minnie Buchingham Harper, who appointed in West Virginia Legislature in 1920, succeeded her deceased husband. The number of women’s representation in the State Legislature increased slowly from 1920 to 1970 (Schenken 637).
State Legislatures saw a slow, steady gender transformation. In 1971 the year Congress established "Women's Equality Day" and the first issue of the magazine Ms. appeared as an insert in New York magazine – women accounted for just 4.5 percent of state legislators. The number of women serving their local constituencies quadrupled from 344 in 1971 to 1,732 in 2007. Women now hold 422 (21.4 percent) of 1971 (Carr 58).
4. Women in the American Judiciary:
The American Judiciary saw steady increase in the number of women since the 1990s. Thus, the first woman who served in the Judiciary was Esther Morris in 1890. She appointed in justice of the peace in Wyoming (qtd in. Palmer). Women's participation in the State Bench increased significantly since the 1970s (Williams 68). While, in 1992, another woman arrived to the Bench of Ohio state Supreme Court, named Florence Allen. Furthermore, in 1934, she appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by the President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and she considered the first woman that served in a Federal Court of General Jurisdiction (Palmer 235-6). Women’s integration into the Judiciary intensified slowly.
In 1999s, some states appointed women in their Supreme Court with percentage of 24, 2 percent except New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Wyoming, and 22 appointed at least two women in their Supreme Courts. President Kennedy announced firstly a public commitment supporting the appointment of women to the National Bench, but he appointed only one woman. While, President Jimmy Carter administration saw the first increase in the number of women on the Federal Bench; he supported the nomination of women and minorities publicly stated that:” If I didn’t have to get Senate confirmation of appointees, I could tell you flatly that… 40 percent would be women.” His administration saw a steady increase from 1, 4 percent to 7 percent (qtd in. Palmer). Although, the number of female Judges raised slowly under the Reagan and Bush administration, but the next increase occurred in the Clinton administration; Clinton appointed more women to the Federal Bench compared with all of his precedent presidents (ibid). Women’s presence in the American Judiciary saw little increase in the 1990s.
While American women participated in public life across the United States but their participation remained not constant across all offices. In 2005, women were 22 percent of state Judges. Women's greater representation in legal careers suggests that there are a significant number of women eligible to serve on the judiciary, more so than would potentially exist for some other office (Williams 68).
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