Donate Icon

The Growing Influence of Women in U.S. Political Decision Making

Home » The Growing Influence of Women in U.S. Political Decision Making
Date(s)Accomplishment
1869-1919National Women’s Suffrage Organization worked to secure the voting rights for all women.
1917Jeanette Rank (D-Montana) elected to the House of Representatives. Women in most states were not allowed to vote, but a woman could be elected to national office.
1920February 14, passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.
1920League of Women Voters formed under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt and Maude Woods Park, taking up the task of registering women as voters and training them about voting procedures. They intended to complete their work and dissolve within a few years.
1922Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-Georgia) became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1923League of Women Voters convenes a Pan-American Conference of Women, challenging the women of Latin America to exert their influence and gain the voting right.
1964Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to be nominated by the Republican Party for the Presidency
1980Gender-Gap issue awareness begins to receive noticeable importance among politicians and pollsters
1984Geraldine Ferraro was selected as the Vice Presidential candidate by the Democratic Party.
2006A record 71 women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and 16 women elected to the Senate
2007Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives
2012Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the first woman to be nominated for President by one of the two major political parties.
Women now occupy 10% of all elective offices in the country.