The Historiography of Women in Congress
The first edition of Women in Congress (H. Con. Res. 664, Report No. 94-1732, 94th Congress, 29 September 1976) was compiled and printed at the time of the U.S. Bicentennial. Proposed by Congresswoman Corinne Claiborne (Lindy) Boggs of Louisiana, who chaired the Joint Committee on Arrangements for the Commemoration of the Bicentennial, the booklet profiled the 95 women who had served in the House and Senate. The author, Susan J. Tolchin, was then the director of the Washington Institute for Women in Politics at Mount Vernon College. Each Member was profiled in a 200- to 400-word biography, and basic information appeared in a header for each entry. The entries were arranged alphabetically in two sections, one for former Members and the other for current Members. A thumbnail picture accompanied each profile.
“Few patterns emerged from this group: these women reflected the societies and the era in which they lived; they were a microcosm of prevailing ideologies and political styles,” Tolchin noted in a brief introduction.29 Written against the backdrop of the women’s rights movement and a surge of female participation in local government, the first edition of Women in Congress anticipated a not-too-distant day when women would “move toward equal representation within government.” Tolchin wrote, “Local and state offices act as the seedbed for higher office; we now find many more women running for Congress and the State House as a result of these great strides toward increased representation at lower levels.”30 Although women would play a greater role in government, their ascent through the political ranks no doubt occurred more slowly than Tolchin and many others envisioned.
Compiled by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, which was created in 1983 in preparation for the House Bicentennial, the second edition of Women in Congress had a format similar to that of the initial edition. Published for the first time as a hardbound book, the volume contained Member profiles that were slightly longer than those in the first edition with basic biographical information incorporated into the narrative. The profiles of former and current Members were merged into one section that again was arranged alphabetically. Larger images accompanied the individual profiles.
Footnotes
29Susan Tolchin, Women in Congress, 1917–1976 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976): iii.
30Tolchin, Women in Congress, 1917–1976: iii.
31Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in Congress, 1917–1990 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991): v.