was frank "i am the law" haig, a machine politician and comes in in 1925, the same year as edith nourse rogers. the interesting thing about her is she, like rogers and other women from this early general railings, really pursue a strategy of gaining power in the house by assimilating. they didn't push women's issues, per se. they really tried to minimize gender differences and norton was extremely successful moving up the committee leadership ladder. she chaired four congressional committees by the time she retired from the house in the early 1950s. and one of them was the labor committee of the new deal, the labor committee and her single piece of legislation was the fair labor standards act of 1938, which set a 40-hour workweek, outlawed child labor, set a minimum wage, and she later said that was the -- the crowning moment of my house experience. i'm prouder of getting that bill through the house than anything else i've ever done. but she was a no-nonsense legislator. very early on in her career, maybe even the year that this picture was snapped, she was on the house floor and a bill was be

it looks like edith nourse rogers has some flowers. this represents not all the women in congress but lots of them. they are being photograph and being treated by the press as an entity. how that is going to get played out would change. and over the next couple of decades, as people try to figure out what do we talk about when we talk about women in congress? >> this is an interesting photo because it points out, you can go through this a look at the way the women were elected to congress. on the front row is pearl oldfield who succeeded her husband who passed away. then edith nourse rogers then ruth pratt who represented the silk stocking district in new york city. then on the far side here is ruth hannah mccormack of illinois. her father was marcus hannah, the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th century. and constantly butted heads with william jennings bryan. his daughter is on the side of the picture. we have a press account when these two ruths came down the center aisle together arm in arm. and wowed the members an

and lots of the women that we know from long service, edith nourse rogers, all these folks are here and they are very business like. but often, they are described as, you know, sort of fabulously wealthy or 5'3''or, you know, tiny brunette. things like that that sort of placing them still in this -- it is a tricky position for them to figure out and in this transitional generation this is 1941, it's going to continue to be a little bit complicated to figure out. and once the war ends, it is probably going to get a little more complicated. and in this case, it's kind of an interesting contrast here. jesse sum nish here is on the phone and she is taking care of business but over here, we have margaret chase smith, who is tending some flowers. and she has a wonderful, fascinating long career. this is a visitor pass, a gallery pass, that's signed by margaret chase smith in 1941. and gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs of trips to the capitol and that this was perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women in congress at the time. >> f ach