And philadelphia. Good morning everyone. Welcome to this mornings discussion, from the moscow with. To nancy pelosi. Around the table on women, wielding the political power. Im Greta Brawner from cspan, American History tv, on cspan three every weekend. Its happy to coordinate with the organization of american historians to moderate this panel discussion, and of course it could not come at a better moment in history, with the 19th minute granting the women the right to vote. Passed by that u. S. House in the un that senate in 19, and ratified in 1920. If we are 100 years later, the 116th congress has the highest percentage of women ever making up ever, making up a quarter of each chamber. And we have a female speaker for the second time. We have four women still for running for president. Todays panel will look at women, the role of women, and the key turning points for women in the wake of politics. Others you do see to our panelists, i will come back through and have each of them talk about their books, with a period of time that the writing the. We, for about five minutes. And then will open up the conversation to all of you so we get to that point for that questions id like each of you to go the microphone lineup, behind a microphone to ask questions. ,. ,. She was also historian and wrote the book bell moscow its feminine politics, an exercise of power and the age of alfred a smith. David helped publish his mothers final book, after the vote feminist politics and laguardias new york. Susan weir, its author of beyond suffrage women in the new deal. And also, the book why they marched, untold story of the women who fought for the right to vote. Felicia coren blue, university of vermont professor, gender sexuality and womens study professor. Coauthor of the book and shrink prophesy, welfare reform, and feminist perspective. Mary allen curtain, is a history professor and the director of american studies at american universities and the author of the forthcoming book, from virtue to power Barbara Jordan and the rise of black womens leadership in modern america. Glenn matthews who helped organize this mornings panel, is the author of the rise of public women, womens power, and womens place in the united states, and the coauthor of the book, running as a woman, gender and power in american politics. And some site who is a Political Science professor at records university, a senior scholar at the center for american women in politics, coauthor of the book a seat at the table, congresswomens perspectives on why their presence matters. David perry lets begin with you. Thank you so much. This book. Right here available, at the book exhibit. Begins with the line, this book is about the women who went to my grandmothers funeral. Thats the first line here. My mothers last work which came out two days ago, took decades for her to get to that first line. In the 19 eighties, my mother turned her attention to the biography of bill moscow. Its one of the most important and powerful women in new york, and perhaps a National Political history in the first few decades of the 20th century. People knew about bell, but her papers, she broadly destroyed her papers, and so it took my mother a long time to dig into haystacks and find a lot of needles looking for copies of letters that she sent, looking for references to her, to put together the story in her own time in our own context in her own name. So she went from being the famous misses am, to being bell mosque with. But my mother found another needles scat about moved into political life in the same air after suffrage. She found in the sort of early late eighties, early 1990s, that is just not a story that she had to wear it all to tell. These Multi Layer Networks of women who have moved into political life. It was really only the rise, and its a conversation that she and i had allied in a final, years surgical databases of laptops, newspapers online, that enabled her to put it together and to put together this book about all these amazing women who came out of the Suffrage Movement, and into political life. I got a little taste of that on her literally last day of consciousness. Excuse me. Where i got to read with her, 1918 i think brooklyn daily eagle, this local newspaper which i see a lot of people nodding. Im a medieval historian, news to me. I could search these database, and find the exact date, and exact articles, and track down exact footnote for this book. It was not a bad way to spend that day. This book jacket as you can see on the screen, shows a photo of the women of the laguardia administration, at a banquet on december six 1937. My mother also found that its published its entirety here, a skit that these women put on for themselves and also for the mayor who was in attendance. Called 50 women and one man, a play in three scenes with one acts. And its an amazing document, it says everything that we want to say, its as women who are coming together, they are celebrating their achievements, theyre celebrating the mayor who has brought them into political office, but they are also recognizing that their vice commissioners. And not commissioners. They are recognizing that their second in command, and not in command. The whole play is that, if we give the men a break, new york is gonna run better and it ends with the mayor played by one of the women of the administration, saying you are right. Fire all the men, and elsewhere you all his commissioners tomorrow. So, its a fantasy, but its a fantasy that think carries us down the road establishing the trajectory of the panel. 100 years from delta nancy pelosi, of ambition and success, but also of glass ceilings and patriarchy. Thank you so much we applause elizabeth perry, and i shared deep and abiding interest in womens political history and feminist biography. I am proud to be on this panel, with my distinguished colleagues to honor her legacy. But i want to start with a shout out to the upcoming centennial of the 19th amendment, because if women hadnt got the vote in 1920, we would not be having this panel. But having said that, i think its important to remember, not getting women elected to office was not a terribly high priority for the womens Suffrage Movement. Their focus was on the franchise, womens new identities, as voters and citizens, and on getting a foot inside the door of politics, which was generally seen as a male preserve. Of course, there were some dramatic early examples of women winning political office, such as Jeannette Rankin of montana, who was the first woman elected in office in 1916. But for years the far more common path for women, to Elective Office was the windows route. The being selected to fill the term of a late husband, and sometimes, not very often, being able to parlay that into political power of her own. But the big story of the immediate coast suffrage here, was not the women being elected to office. It was women being appointed to office, to prominent government positions. And instead of wielding political power, and shaping Public Policy, behind the scenes, which was generally bell mosque to its preferred way to operate, they did it in full public view. And the case in point is, the politics and government of the new deal, where the dramatic expansion of social programs to combat the Great Depression provided jobs and opportunities for women reformers, who are long active in that field. Laid by the triumvirate of the first lady, roosevelt, secretary of labor frances perkins, the first woman to first in the candidate, molly dusen, the Womens Division of the the womans whack were of highlevel appointees influence the social welfare policies of a new deal. Especially in the Works Progress administration and the Social Security administration. Women also took on larger roles in the revitalize Democratic Party. Even the results were far from achieving gender parity. Womens interest and issues might have been overlooked, if not completely forgotten in the 1930s, without the effective mobilization of the Womens Network. So the new deal, i think, truly was a breakthrough for womens in public life. Many of these women were first whose appointments were rightly recorded in the press. But unfortunately, it proved difficult to institutionalize their progress. Women found many fewer opportunities during wartime in the 1940s than they had in the depression of the 19 thirties. And reminding those in position of power, that women could serve with distinction, at the very highest level of politics in government. Remained an uphill battle, and indeed it still remains one today. And without an Eleanor Roosevelt, or Mueller Dusen to constantly press womens case, to often the jobs defaulted back to white men. But a major reason, i think, to remember the contributions that women made to the new deal is to situate the story of women wielding power as part of a much longer continuum. This stretches from the womens Suffrage Movement, actually from before the womens Suffrage Movement, through the new deal, all the way to 2018 elections and beyond. Women have always wielded political power, but where and how and which women have changed over time. And as we assess where women are today, and where they might be heading, we should always remember that they are standing on the shoulders of the political woman who came before them. Thank you. applause we i also am very happy to be here, david i did know your mother personally, but of course i knew her work and the biography of moscow its was a very important look for me. I am gonna speak about representative patsy, teammate of hawaii. Who was the mother of my collaborator, on the book just published. Patsy was the mother of glendale in the public scientist. I draw here material that appears in our book, ensuring poverty, welfare reform and pena feminists perspective which is available in the university of. Thats a top omoto and, and to politics on the wings of the japanese American Civil Rights and the womens Rights Movements. Trained as a lawyer, make one election to the territorial house of representatives in hawaii, in 1956. Before hawaii was a state. In 1964, she won a seat on the u. S. House representative, without the backing of her local Democratic Party whose dictate she refused to follow. She became the first Asian American woman, and first women of color from any background to serve in the house of representatives. During Lyndon Johnsons presidency, make strongly supported the anti poverty programs, that were under the umbrella of the great society, but she was a fierce critic of the war in vietnam. And battled with her president and her party continuously over that. Make advocated for womens causes, in congress, among many other achievements, shes known as the primary author of title ix, of the educational amendments of 1972, which barr sex based discrimination and institutions of Higher Education that receive federal funds. Make left the house in 1977, she ran for the senate, served as an under secretary of state in the carter administration, and as a member and ultimately chair of the honolulu city council. She then returned to the house of representatives in 1989, and during her second career in the house, she again debated with members of our own party, and stood up for women especially those with the least political and economical power. We see these two tendencies most clearly in the role that she played, welfare reform. While being clinton and other democrats who was president of the u. S. As many of us remember, clinton called himself quote unquote, new democrat. And what that meant in part was that, he was willing to shed some of the Traditional Democratic commitments to the alleviation of poverty especially the poverty of women headed families. Make dissented from her president , and organized other progressive feminist and race conscious members of congress to do the same. And she played this role, at the three different moments in her career of welfare reform. First when president clinton first introduced his own welfare reform legislation, shortly after he was elected on a pledge to quote and welfare as we know it. Then, when the republicans came into the majority, and both houses of congress, after the november 19th 1994 elections and then they introduced a more conservative welfare reform policy. At that point what make did, was organized democrats to keep president clinton from signing the bill. That the republicans were on the verge of sending him. That effort failed. But then she came back, at the very end of the 19 nineties into the early 21st century, and organize progressive democrats again to replace welfare reform with a more progressive feminist alternative. Patsy formulated or own bill, she just did not critique what others were doing, what other democrats are doing. She produced a bill called hr 30 1 13. That became the feminist progressive and anti racist proposal for welfare reauthorization. At the turn of the 21st century. And this was a proposal that placed women and mothers, especially low income mothers, at the center and that honor the caregiving work that they did as mothers, from mixed perspective, it was inadequate to have a policy that simply matched people up with jobs or that pushed him into the labor market without also honoring and respecting and supporting the work that they did as mothers in their homes. The democratic leadership in the house of representatives honored makes efforts and ultimately 40 of the Democratic Caucus and the house supported her bill, but finally the leadership decided that they were going to have a much more conservative bill than mix, and encourage other democrats to follow their lead. Gondolin mannock, ultimately reported to a colleague that quote, maxime waters the democrat of california, major owens democrat of new york, and patsy mink herself, went to democratic majority leader richard get part, and he told him essentially that its more important to hold on to him hold on to the new, more conservative anti democrats, that to accommodate progressives and people of color. Unquote. There was no equivalent to the make bill in the u. S. Senate, even though democrats had a slight majority. And ultimately, Congress Stalemate it on the issue, unable to come to an agreement between the parties and often on an acknowledged with debate still roiling even among democrats. Just days before an anti climactic agreement that deferred legislative actions on welfare until after the 2002 elections, representative patsy make passed away in honolulu, a viral pneumonia develop from chicken pox. The New York Times to remember her as articulate, strong willed, and willing to fight for causes large and small. Thank you. applause good morning. Good morning. What an honor it is to be here today, celebrating the life of work of is less a it is real peril, and reflect on the past and present state of women in american politics. Professor perrys 1992 biography of bill moscow its, inspires because of its candor and interpretive. Perry argued that moscow its, a great progressive reformer of the earliest 20th century, who served as a close adviser to governor al smith, succeeded because of adherence to feminine rather than feminist behaviors. Her aim like mine was to make the state an instrument for the welfare of the people, sent governor smith. And though she cooperated with Many Political life, she was essentially a wife and a mother. A womanly woman. And although enormously influential, bell moscow its accepted that women should serve men, not lead them. Such beliefs and practices contrasted sharply with those held by politicians such as Barbara Jordan, of houston texans, who served in the Texas Legislature in 1976 1982, and became the first black woman in the south elected to congress until retiring to 1978. Perrys study of moscow its ushered in a new era for black women and Political Leadership in america. Id like to list a few of the key differences that distinguish joined from other Barbara Jordan was not a social worker. But a lawyer. And a political activist in the early sixties who worked with the naacp to integrate schools, overturn the white primary, open up the political system to black voters and candidates. Jordans involvement in activism led her to political office. Second, george and sought leadership. She competed with man for political office. When another black politician curtis graves, also sought to enter the congressional primary, jordan stated, if there is a collision course between mr. Graves and me, i shall not differ. I shall not defer to him, or i shall not defer to anyone else who i think i can win. Third Barbara Jordan was ambitious, though she was defeated twice for political office, she persisted. She showed tremendous personal strength, and then i give up, and she always wanted to go higher. He said her ambition was still indeed to be, fourth jordan did not work behind the scenes, but was a very public figure, who inspired and served as a role model for black elated for those who saw on television. Fifth yes join work for the public good, but as a politician a role she relished, that meant gaining the respect of colleagues in communities, and arc of pressure and compromise to energize voters. Jordan shoes the role of mother and wife. She created home ties with same sex relationships. Personal independence, and Financial Independence were extremely important to him. And finally, although a loyal democrat, jordan also bypassed the party, political machine. Creating her own Political Organization of black workers, who went door to door many of whom, we