Miriam Coleman - Women in Politics

Published in 2016 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2016 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

First Edition

Editor: Sarah Machajewski Book Design: Reann Nye

Photo Credits: Cover (background) Gts/Shutterstock.com; cover (Rice) STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images; cover (Clinton) ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images; cover (Sotomayor) http://commons.wikimedia . org/wiki/File:Sonia_Sotomayor_in_SCOTUS_robe.jpg; p. 5 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Susan_B_Anthony_c1855.png; p. 7 FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images; p. 9 Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 10 Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 11 Fotosearch/Archive Photos/ Getty Images; p. 13 New York Daily News Archive/New York Daily News/Getty Images; p. 14 Neftali/ Shutterstock.com; p. 15 Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images; p. 17 Rogers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 19 (O'Connor) Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 19 (Sotomayor)

Win McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images; p. 21 PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images; p. 23 Chris Hondros/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 25 Terry Ashe/The LIFE Images Collection/

Getty Images; p. 27 Mike Coppola/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images; p. 29 Bloomberg/ Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coleman, Miriam.

Women in politics / Miriam Coleman.

pages cm. (Women groundbreakers)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4994-1046-4 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-4994-1075-4 (6 pack)

ISBN 978-1-4994-1084-6 (library binding)

1. Women Political activityJuvenile literature. 2. Women public officersJuvenile literature. 3. Women politiciansJuvenile literature. I. Title.

HQ1236.C563 2016 320.082dc23

2015006139

Manufactured in the United States of America

In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested in Rochester, New York, along with several other women. Her crime was casting a vote in the presidential election when women hadnt yet been granted the right to vote. She was punished with a fine of $100. Anthony refused to pay the fine and used her case to rally more Americans to the cause of womens suffrage .

Hundreds more women were arrested while fighting for a voice in American politics before women finally won the right to vote in 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed. Today, almost a century later, women participate in politics on every level, thanks to the hard-fighting spirit of women like Anthony and her fellow suffragists.

Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Remarkably, she was elected to Congress at a time when women in many states didnt yet have the right to vote.

Rankin worked as a teacher, seamstress, and social worker before running to represent Montana in Congress in 1916. Once in office, she helped pass the Nineteenth Amendment and fought for the rights of women workers. Rankin was also a pacifist and voted against the United States entering World War I.

After finishing her term in 1919, Rankin continued working for pacifist causes and served as a delegate to the Womens International Conference for Peace in Switzerland. She was elected to Congress a second time in 1939.

AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS

Rankin helped create Congresss Committee on Woman Suffrage in 1917. She joined the committee once it was created.

Until Eleanor Roosevelt came to the White House, First Ladies were expected to keep their opinions to themselves. However, Roosevelt wasnt afraid to speak her mind. She acted behind the scenes as a valuable political advisor to her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and was the first First Lady to hold her own press conferences. She even wrote a daily newspaper column called My Day.

Roosevelt had always been eager to help the disadvantaged . As a young woman, she volunteered to teach poor immigrant families in New York City. During World War I, she worked with the American Red Cross and volunteered at navy hospitals. When her husband was paralyzed by polio in 1921, she became increasingly active in politics, saying she was acting as the presidents eyes, ears, and legs.

AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS

Because FDR was in office as president for four terms, Eleanor Roosevelt is the nations longest-serving First Lady.

FDR became president in 1933. He took office in the midst of the Great Depressiona time of terrible poverty and suffering across the nation. As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt worked to make sure her husbands policies helped Americans in need. She also championed civil rights for African Americans and traveled the country giving speeches to rally Americans to support the causes she believed in.

After FDRs death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics. She was appointed U.S. delegate to the United Nations (UN) in 1946 and served as head of the UN Human Rights Commission. She became known as the First Lady of the world. She continued fighting for better opportunities for women and civil rights for everyone until the end of her life in 1962.

Shirley Chisholm was a true pioneer. Drawing on her background as an educator and activist in Brooklyn, New York, Chisholm became the first African American congresswoman and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Chisholm was first elected to Congress as a Democrat from New York in 1968 and went on to serve seven terms. Declaring she had no intention of just sitting quietly and observing, she helped found the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Womens Political Caucus while fighting hard for the rights of women, minorities , and the poor. While in office, she helped expand the nations food stamp program to help feed low-income families. She also spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War.