By Nora Barry
FOR THE INQUIRER
Allyson Schwartz remembers her early days in the Pennsylvania State Senate, during the 1990’s, when her sons were in middle and high school. “It was a lot of evenings and weekends,” said the representative of the 13th district, “and I would run home, eat dinner with them and then run back out again.” At the time Ms. Schwartz was only the third woman to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate. But these days, Schwartz’s story is being played out by a record number of Capitol Hill congresswomen.
Three women gave birth during the 110th Congress, and as the 111th Congress takes its seats this month, another new baby is on the way — which brings the total number of moms raising young children and babies to ten, a group that includes single moms as well as the first unwed single mother ever in Congress. It’s a paradigm shift from 1958 when Rep. Coya Knutson lost her bid for a third term largely due to a letter her husband wrote and released to the press, exhorting her to “...go home and make a home for your husband and son...”
In 1973 Representative Yvonne Brathwaite Burke became the first Congresswoman to give birth in office. That same year Pat Schroeder of Colorado arrived in Washington in 1973 with a 2 year old and 6 year old in tow — such an unusual scenario that Schroeder was asked how she intended to work in Congress and raise small children at the same time. She famously replied, “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.”
Schroeder remained on Capitol Hill for 24 years, one of a small number of women — and a smaller number of mothers — who were in Congress during the hey day of the women’s movement. It wasn’t until 1995 that the next congresswoman, Enid Greene of Utah, gave birth in office, followed by Rep. Susan Molinari of New York and then Rep. Blanche Lambert Lincoln (now a senator) in 1996. The pace has suddenly quickened: a congresswoman gave birth in 2007, two in 2008 and another is due this spring. Like Schroeder, all of them seem positioned for the long haul. One of the women is the vice-chair of the House Republican Conference and three are members of the group known as Pelosi’s 30-Somethings, a coterie of 11 members of Congress in their 30s and early 40s.
These women are markedly different than their 20th century predecessors. According to Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, female Representatives have traditionally been older than their male counterparts and less likely to have children under the age of 18 living at home. Many of the early Congresswomen also won their seats via the Widow’s Mandate—a term used to describe the process by which wives were appointed to fill their dead husband’s seat. In fact, Pennsylvania has sent three women to Congress via this mandate (and only seven women total to the Hill, to date, contributing to the state’s poor ranking — 44th out of 50 states — for number of women in office).
That pattern began to shift in the 1970’s when for the first time 48% of the women in Congress were elected on the basis of their own experience as state legislators, governors and mayors. At the same time, the average age of Congressional women dropped below fifty. Another sea change occurred in 1992, the so-called “Year of the Woman”, when more women were elected to the House and Senate than in any previous decade. According to Matt Wasniewski, Historian and Deputy Chief of the Congressional Office of History and Preservation, every Congressional election since then has seen the arrival of, on average, ten more women on the Hill—meaning the number of women elected since the early 90’s has been more than the total number of women elected between 1789 and 1990. Those demographics have helped institute a number of mother friendly changes on the Hill, including a nursing room and a daycare center—significant for an institution which did not offer female senators a bathroom near the floor of the Senate until the 1990’s. Says Representative Schwartz, “Congress has not easily accommodated to change.”
While no one is keeping stats on the burgeoning number of Congress moms, they seem to be constituting a mini-trend of their own. “It’s a fascinating moment,” said Walsh. “For men, the photo of the wife and the kids and the golden retriever is priceless. It shows they have a stake in the community. For women, they bring their kids on the campaign trail and the first question is, who’s gonna take care of the kids if you’re elected?”
That question was frequently raised to Gov. Sarah Palin when she was first nominated to the Republican vice-presidential ticket. On the floor of the Republican National Convention, CNN’s John Roberts questioned her ability to care for a special-needs infant while in office. Sally Quinn, writing in the Washington Post, said, “When the phone rings at 3 in the morning and one of her children is really sick, what choice will she make?”
Female politicians say questions like these ignore how similar they are to other working mothers.
“Like any working parent, I find it can be a challenge to balance family life with my work responsibilities,” says Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln of Arkansas, who has been on the campaign trail since her twin sons were 1. But time on the trail is balanced by the ability of Representatives to set their own schedule. “My job does offer me a lot of flexibility that a lot of parents don’t have,” says Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who gave birth to her son, Cole, in 2007 . “I don’t have to punch the clock so I can carve out time to help meet Cole’s needs.”
Carving out time has become ironically more difficult with a female Speaker. Under male (Republican) control the House was in session only from Tuesday through Thursday so most Representatives left their families at home, where they spent the majority of their own time. However Speaker Pelosi has put the House on a Monday through Friday schedule, increasing challenges for Congressional parents who don’t want to leave their small children behind five out of every seven days.
McMorris Rodgers and others are responding by settling into D.C., much like their Senatorial colleagues. “We chose to buy the house [on Capitol Hill] so I could be close to the Capitol and still be with my family,” says the Congresswoman. She adds, “My husband makes it all possible”. McMorris Rogers’ husband Brian is retired from the Navy and lives with her in Washington, as do the husbands of Representatives Gillibrand and Herseth Sandlin. Moving spouses and children to D.C. has long been a practice of the more sedate Senate, which has a six year election cycle, but it’s unusual for House members who run for election every two years and are almost constant campaigning in their districts.
“Politics has a basic bias against families because of the two-year election cycle,” says Rep. Deborah Pryce of Ohio. Ms. Pryce was first elected to Congress in 1993 when her daughter Caroline was 2. Caroline died in 1999 of pediatric cancer and Pryce and her husband subsequently divorced. In 2002, she adopted Mia, the same year she was elected chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the highest-ranking Republican woman. “I promised myself I wouldn’t raise her in D.C.,” Pryce said. So Mia stayed behind in Ohio and Pryce commuted back and forth every week. Eventually, as Mia got older, “she needed me at home,” so Pryce opted not to run for re-election in 2008.
Not all of them are mothers, but women will comprise a record-breaking 17 percent of seats in the 111th Congress. It’s still not representative of the country, but consider the attitude shift since a male colleague said this to U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick during a debate about equal rights legislation: “I just don’t like this amendment. I’ve always thought of women as kissable, cuddly and smelling good.”
To which the redoubtable Fenwick replied, “That’s the way I feel about men, too. I only hope for your sake that you haven’t been disappointed as often as I have.”
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