are a cool thing to keep your going to make more and more people who think it is honorable and decent -- and even a cool thing -- to keep your word. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] many wonderful

words -- we heard so many wonderful words from our panel, so we are going to ask you -- to the fourth floor. join me once again and taking the panel us, and we will see you on the fourth floor. [applause] >> join us today at 2:00 pm discussion e for a on ronald reagan. we look at reagan's skills as a and how it r, attributed to his success as a president. and the influences of his experiences on his political career. that is today at 2:00 pm time here on c-span3's "american history tv". each week, we visit museums and historic places. up next, we take you inside the of the u.s. capital to learn about the history of

women in congress. in the second of a two-part program, we continue the story with ning in the 1940's clare boothe luce. >> i am farar elliott, a curator for the museum. i take care of the artifacts, the objects that documents the house is rich heritage. >> i am matthew wasniewski. historian at the house, and my job is to collect historical information on the members. to conduct oral histories. e answer reference questions in our office. we try to tell the story of the which is this very big, very old institution in a way in which people can kind of connect with it at a human level. we do that too telling clips phical stories or

from oral histories that give a human sense of a very large institution. today, we thought we would try to do that with you by telling you about the history of women in congress. which is a history that dates back to the early twentieth century. nifty piece of campaign memorabilia. clare boothe luce -- her reelection campaign. do -- n tells you what to uuse this column -- and make sure that you are pulling the levers to elect her. >> she would have been the republican counterpart of helen douglas. she was someone who was well known to the general public. her career really started as a writer and an editor. she was the managing editor for

"vanity fair" magazine. she later married henry luce, founder of "time", "life" magazine's. she was elected to two terms in the 1940s. she had originally been a new deal, then e she turned against fdr's domestic policies. by the time she comes to congress, she is one of the in e eloquent spokespeople terms of criticisms of fdr's wartime management. she is not in isolationist. she is an internationalist. the equal upports rights amendment and enhanced roles for women in military services and outside the home. a she is something of feminist, as well. ♪

america, this congressional delegation comes to the western front on a -- clare c mission boothe luce sserve and house of representatives military affairs committee. ♪ towards the avels battle lines, observing american weapons and supplies mmaking a big push towards the rhine. ♪ they also look over newly liberated areas behind the lines. on their return home, they will make their report to the can nation. >> she served two terms. this would have been for her 1944 reelection. but about that time, she fered a personal tragedy -- in only daughter was killed

a car wreck near stanford, where she was going to college. and with that, she kind of lost a lot of her zeal for public office. retires from the house at seventy-ninth congress in 1947. she and douglas would have term, but they a certainly wwould have been known by the general public as two very prominent women. >> this is one of my favorite buttons in the collection. iis this wonderful person -- that talks about the between generations of women and how it relates to what is going on the nation at large. paid the some ways, changing view of

women in the 1940's and 1950's world war ii ends. her and a photograph of her husband in front of andy's plays a prominent role in how her career and. up to this point in there are so many wwomen who come to congress to their husbands. she is a story where she loses career gressional because of that familial connection. came up through -- first of all, she is -- she represented a district in minnesota for two but she came up through the democratic former labour party in minnesota. that is how she got her political start. she served in the minnesota house of representatives, and had a very promising political areer. in 1954, she decides to run for a u.s. house seat. against the wishes of

democratic farmer labor leaders, were not happy with the fact that she doesn't want in the state house of representatives. so she has to fund her own political campaign. and she does so. she went election. at this and, andy, point -- and this was a strange marriage to begin with -- he grows jealous of her ppolitical success. and, so, koya in the house, has a very successful career. does is he things she she -- because of her background as a teacher -- she wants to push for a federal student loan program. the manages -- after sputnik crisis -- to slip in a provision, an amendment to the national defense education act in 1958 that establishes l student loans.

so, she -- she knows the really tive ropes and pushes her agenda. unfortunately, she runs for election that year. and democratic farmer labor operatives sabotage her campaign. letter that they get her husband, andy, to sign. the letter says that her marriage is suffering because is far from home. and it intimates that there be some kind of relationship towards a staffer that she has. the letter is -- koya, come home. essentially, loses the reelection because of the negative publicity that is generated by this letter. a lot of it is because of the that was pectation still prevalent -- the women's in the domestic inside the home -- and that really comes back to hurt the campaign.

in the 1958 midterms, she is the only incumbent democrat to lose her seat. enter career comes to a close. she later tries to run for congress again, but she is unsuccessful. hansen of er washington state is definitely women in this era who is pushing the ball on for in terms of this apprenticeship that they are serving as a group. her background was aactually as member of the state of representatives. she was a chair of a couple different committees in the state legislature. she served quite often as speaker pro tem. did in the things she washington -- she was the prime behind establishing the ferry system in the state. pical not your ty

freshman which is elected in 1960 in a special election. she very quickly moves into a position of influence. on the s a seat appropriations committee in the house. mid-1960's, she vies for a subcommittee chairmanship. of the so-called cardinals of the appropriation committee. she competes for a seat on the interior and related agencies subcommittee. it is a tough competition, but she went out -- wins out. chairman of the well, he decides, tested her in getting the he is going , and to test her as a new chairman. to the first time she comes the new committee with her bill of hundreds and hundreds millions of dollars -- a big says priations bill -- he to her -- julia, this is great,

but you have to cut $2 million out of it. she kind of looked at him and said, yes, mister chairman. she left. she went back to her subcommittee, aand she comes back a couple days later to the e.ll committe and she says -- mister chairman, i want to report back to you. i found $2.5 million to cut out of the bill. wherever did you find it? right out of your district, mister chairman. and he never bothered her again. martha, who was a power in her said that julia how to exercise power more than any woman she in legislature. that is high praise. have a campaign postcard from martha, one of the most influential members. she represented a michigan district.

like some of the earlier women like julia butler hansen, she has got a lot of experience before she ever comes to congress. she is a lawyer. a judge in as michigan. and she is elected to the house in 1954. she comes in a 1955. and she, too, very quickly moves into a position of influence. she is the first women come after number of women in congress had campaigned to the on the , to get a seat very exclusive ways and means committee -- the tax committee. from that position, she really of issues on a lot women -- monetarily -- but she is probably known best as the mother of the equal rights amendment. it has a history of the house and congress going back to 1923. uck in bill was just st the judiciary committee. it never came out.

and she was a lawyer by training. she was very critical of the supreme court. supreme not think the court whatever decide a case -- that ever decide a case would make women truly equal with men. of the s it out judiciary committee with a discharge petition. it passes the house, stalls in back nate, and she comes again and does it again. finally, it passes in 1972. and it goes out to the states. it is never approved as a constitutional amendment, but martha was really among a core group of women. the other thing that she does is during the 1964 civil rights she was very interested in pushing an amendment through give women equal rights in terms of employment. but she was very cagey about how she did it.

she knew that the chairman of the house rules committee, committed th, a segregationist, wanted to take civil rights act -- 1964 civil rights act. and she wanted to take it introduce the word sex. she wanted to introduce a word that would provide for equal opportunity. so she held back because she knew that smith could bring a lot of southern votes with him. smith intended this simply as a gimmick. well, he gets onto the floor to talks about how he wants insert the word sex into this. there is laughter's and giggles around the chamber. martha follows smith up on behalf of the amendment and says -- if there was any need we need this

amendment, the laughing prior -- they tting up your prove it -- here -- they prove it. eventually, it was included in the civil rights act. another key legislation action. this is a campaign poster for shirley chisolm. i love this. it is not for her congressional campaign, it is actually for something else entirely. it is actually for a presidential campaign that she waged in 1972. the democratic convention -- actually rounded up about 10% of the vote. she is the first to run -american woman for president, and she did it had shoestring budget and a very admirable showing. but she had a national reputation well before 1972. she is elected to congress in

a district that encompasses much of brooklyn. she becomes very prominent in that campaign. her opponent in the general election on the republican -- liberal republican ticket was james farmer. one of the great civil rights leaders. and there is this back and forth between these two. and farmer really runs on the a that, you know, brooklyn needs a man in congress. and shirley chisolm, boy, she fires back. enter campaign theme is like the one i expressed on this -- unblocked and unbossed. she embraces this advocacy call. she becomes the first african-american woman in congress in 1969.

she serves a clear that come in a lot of ways, is symbolic. she is the first, she helps establish the first black caucus in 1971. and then she also gains a very prominent committee assignment -- she is the first african-american woman to serve on the house rules committee. which is the committee that pulses legislation onto the floor. she had her hand on a lot of important developments in the house, but she also had a national reputation. she was someone who was very outspoken, wwhich is -- which represents, really, a lot of women who are coming in the congress at this point. york city from new was bella, who search for a house in a s in the 1970's and would later go on and try to be elected mayor of new york, unsuccessfully. but these were two women who spoke their minds. whether it was about committee assignments that they didn't agree with.

she was originally assigned to the agriculture committee, and she went to the leadership and told by the speaker of the be a good soldier. so she went out onto the house saying things ted like -- i have a lot more veterans in my district and i do trees. she is assigned to the veterans affairs committee. so these are not people who are going to sit and be quiet, of the in terms expectation for freshmen or for women members. so they really kind of challenge the system. and that really reflects a lot on in wider oing society with the women rights movements in the 1960's and 1970's. women are challenging these roles that had been carved out for them. and really trying to much more e in a important and fuller way in the u.s. society. shirley chisolm certainly

represents that. the things that we did in the last ten years was commissioned portraits of the pioneers in the house. that certainly included shirley chisolm. did of shirley chisolm very deliberately that was lot of what a lking about -- that she had was talking matt about -- that she had a national role. in many ways, this is a traditional portrait. it highlights the figure, the subject there. capital is present, too. but it makes the capital than her stature, nationally. also, it is a very assertive portrait. she is really looking at the viewer, and she is, in fact, gesturing to the viewer. in order to do that, we sought aartist who we thought could really tell a story very

quickly. that included children's book illustrator. was done by a nationally award-winning book illustrator. it has become one of the most portraits that is beloved by who visit the capital -- because they look at it and they can immediately see what .s going on and it is a piece of history for kids great thing to see aand to the guys to be telling when they bring kids around to see this. >> one of the things that is with shirley chisolm, too, she is a great example in from the forward -- 1970's up. a lot of the women elected to congress increasingly have prior legislative experience. the new york legislature, and she had that background.

a lot of the women who are coming in with her have got that kind of legislative experience already. makes a tremendous difference when you get into the latter ddecades of twentieth century -- the 1980's, the 1990's -- because you have women who have experience running campaigns. and they are stronger candidate. and that is part of the reason we see the growth of women in congress, particularly in the 1990's when we go from what never been more than really any one time at forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty women serving in congress. >> these here are just a few of the hundreds of campaign buttons. but i love seeing them altogether. matt and i often say that we try to put a human face on the house.

and to give people individual to latch onto -- each of these women -- have fascinating stories. one of the dmit, things that i love seeing them altogether and seeing this great richness and variety oof women putting themselves forward to serve their country in congress. i am deeply impressed by all the women who have run for congress and all the women who have served their. one of my favorites is probably lindy boggs. >> lindy boggs comes in the congress in 1973 in a special election. it is interesting because this time. where we see more and more women who have political careers in their own right who are elected to the house. she follows that old widows mandate route. her husband, hal boggs, had

represented a district for almost 3 decades. he had risen to become majority leader in the house, and many people expected him to become speaker of the house. and in october 1972, during a campaign trip to alaska, his aircraft disappeared. and he was presumed dead. this it was later vacated. lindy boggs was prevailed on to run for the seat. years than ad for ears in s eyes and the district. she knew his office and his agenda intimately. the congress and -- unlike the shirley chisolms -- she convinced a quiet determination to push rights. there is a great story that she of getting memoirs

an assignment on the banking and currency committee. there is a bill going before the committee that would provide equal access to credit. and when the bill was being marked up in the committee, the she t came around and it and it said -- you access to credit racial, age, veteran status, discrimination -- but it said nothing about sex or marital status. just become a widow and had to have all the finances transferred over to her. so this was fresh in her mind. so she quietly ttook a pencil inserted the phrase -- sex or marital status. got up, walked to the copier, a photocopy for everyone, out, and said -- knowing everyone on the committee as i was just w that this an oversight.

that my uld assume would be here wholeheartedly welcomed. but that is how lindy boggs worked. she was a real institutionalist and someone who cared very much history of the house. and love to tell visitors about it. and wanted folks to know about the richness and the history of this place. >> we are, indeed, a nation that is of a majority of women. the lso are a nation where majority of women who are heads of households with children six years of age are in poverty. we also -- >> as women started giving power and the second wave -- power and the second going in eminism that was something ere

was ly wonderful -- it called super sisters. this happened when a girl -- ten years old -- came teacher and said -- how come i have no baseball with girls on them? she developed a series of cards of important women -- mostly present, but some past -- and got a grant from new york state to produce them. they became ttrading cards, and were actually popular. 15,000 sets of the cards were sold. of those, quite a few were women in congress. these are just a few. we don't have a full set of the have a full s, we set oof all the women in in the s represented super sisters. is shirley this chisolm -- have stats . or anything like that,

but birth, home, and little bits about each person. they are wonderful because some quotations from and what their accomplishments are. wonderful pieces of 1970's engagement. i love looking at them. that just for that, but also have se some of them really fantastic hair. really those cards coincide with -- with a chance that really began in the late 1970's. women are s organizing and empowering themselves to move further up the congressional leadership ladder. in 1977, both republican and democratic women come together and found the congressional women's caucus.

which has a very successful pushing ive agenda, women's specific issues. in the 1980's, you begin to see the development of political action committees that fund women candidates. that had been one of the things that held women candidates back quite a bit -- money for e campaigns. we begin the 1990's, to see greater numbers of women elected. the 1992 campaign -- the so-called year of the woman -- 2 dozen new women into the house. is only a beginning. know how many experienced, able, and prepared women there are in the state and other states. it is our job together to make sure that the think about running. o accept the hem t challenge of running.

and that we can support them through that race to victory. what you can is get if you work at it. thanks. election after that -- the number begins to take up slowly. as there are more women elected to the house, to get better committee assignments. they get a more diverse range of committee assignments. and they move up into leadership positions. and right down to the modern era, where we have kathy of the the chair republican conference, and nancy pelosi, who was the former speaker and is still the democratic leader. so, the transition that women made in that -- that last time period has been one of great expansion. hen you look at it -- you go back to 1917 -- it has been the men up to most 300 wo this point. so, it is a long story.

[applause] >> you can see this and all other american artifacts program on our website. here are some of the programs on the nd this weekend c-span networks. 8:00 pm on ing at "q&a", political reporters share stories about being on with senator trail mitch mcconnell. tonight at 10:00 pm, political