Mae ella nolan biography definition
Nolan, Mae Ella (1886–1973)
U.S. Republican congressional representative (January 23, 1923–March 3, 1925) who was the first woman elected to Congress to serve her husband's unexpired term. Born Mae Ella Hunt on September 20, 1886, in San Francisco, California; died on July 9, 1973, in Sacramento, California; attended public schools, St. Vincent's Convent, and the Ayres Business College in San Francisco; married John I. Nolan (a politician), in 1913 (died 1922).
Elected to complete her late husband's unexpired term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1923); became the first woman to serve as chair of a committee in the House of Representatives (1923).
Born in San Francisco on September 20, 1886, Mae Ella Hunt was educated in public schools, at St. Vincent's Convent, and at the Ayres Business College in San Francisco. In 1913, she married John I. Nolan, a California politician who had recently been elected to the House of Representatives on Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party (Bull Moose) ticket. Less than ten years later, and one week after his reelection to a sixth term in Congress, her husband died. On January 23, 1923, a special election was held to fill his unexpired term and the subsequent term. Running against three male opponents, Nolan handily defeated her closest challenger by over 4,000 votes. Barely three years after American women gained the right to vote, she became the first woman to be elected to Congress to complete her husband's unexpired term. She served the one month remaining in the 67th Congress, and the full term of the 68th Congress, during which she was the only woman in Congress.
Assigned to the Labor Committee (which in the pre-Depression years was somewhat of a dumping ground for first-term members of Congress), Nolan made good her campaign pledge to carry out her husband's issues, which included labor legislation and his proposal to introduce a minimum daily wage of three dollars for federal employees. Having received th
On November 11, 2019, Maya Michelle Rockeymoore Cummings announced that she was running for the Maryland 7th Congressional district seat—which had been previously occupied by her late husband Elijah Cummings, who died in October of 2019. In a frank discussion following her campaign’s eventual defeat, she revealed: “People don’t know what to make of me … They have no idea of my background and what my accomplishments have been in life. They just think that I rode in on the arm of my husband.”
“Widow’s succession” takes place when a congressman dies, and his wife takes his seat. Traditionally, if appointed to the Congressional seat, the widow is only supposed to act as a placeholder for her dead husband, and is only expected to serve for a brief period until a long-term solution is determined. However, some women manage to use this period to establish their competency and stay in the seat longer than originally anticipated.
What’s more, in the twentieth century “widow’s succession” was one of the most effective ways to get women into Congress. In 1998, the LA Times reported that widows had a greater chance of winning House races than non-widows:
Among first-time House candidates between 1916-93, 84 percent of the widows won, while only 14 percent of other women were victorious. The trend emerged most strongly when women were rarer in politics; 35 of the 95 women who served in Congress before 1976 were Congressional wives first.
In the 1970s, Diane Kincaid, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas, wrote an article about this phenomenon titled “Over his Dead Body: A Positive Perspective on Widows in the U.S. Congress.” She found that “statistically … for women aspiring to serve in Congress,
by Maureen Keating, photographer
National Women’s History Museum
Someone had to be First Heading
National Women’s History Museum
1917
Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. A Republican, she won her election on August 29, 1916 to occupy one of Montana's two at-large seats. Rankin entered Congress three years before all women in the United States had the right to vote.
Jeannette Rankin / Library of Congress (Aug 1, 1916)
by Unknown
National Women’s History Museum
Rankin presented her credentials and claimed her seat on April 2, 1917.
“I may be the first woman member of Congress,” she observed, “but I won’t be the last.”
Credential of Jeannette Rankin / National Archi... (Dec 4, 1916)
by The State of Montana
National Women’s History Museum
Rankin worked as a professional lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her organizing efforts yielded Montana women the right to vote in 1914. Candidate Rankin promised to address social welfare issues and advocate for a constitutional amendment to grant voting rights to women.
Rankin warned constituents that she opposed US involvement in World War I. And when the time came, she voted against it.
Jeannette Rankin / Library of Congress (Feb 27, 1917)
by Bain News Services
National Women’s History Museum
Montana's voters turned her out of office after one term. She returned for a second term in 1941.
“No one will pay any attention to me this time,” Rankin proclaimed after her victory. “There is nothing unusual about a woman being elected.”
I’m No Lady; I’m a Member of Congress Heading
National Women’s History Museum
1917-1934
The 19th amendment's ratification in 1920 meant that, for the first time, women across the country could not only vote but also run for office. Four women took seats in Congress in 1921. One of them, Mae Ella Nolan of California, became the first woman to chair a congressional com Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column. Meeting over the weekend, the party celebrated 75 years of feminist progress, while making it clear that the battle for total equality is far from over. Ava Belmont, President of the National Woman’s Party, let it be known at a banquet last night that the suffrage amendment was just one stepping stone on the path to equality, and that it’s time for women to assume political leadership: For twenty centuries men have been running the world. Now it is time for women to take over affairs, and as they very nearly hold a balance of political power at this time, the day may not be as far distant as old party leaders imagine when there will be set up a woman’s government by women for women, children and humanity in general. Plans were announced in April to set up a separate “Women’s Congress” in Washington, D.C., possibly as early as December, to debate the same issues as those of the U.S. Congress, so that women’s views could be made known. There is presently only one woman in Congress, Rep. Mae Ella Nolan, Republican of California. The National Woman’s Party may also become a formal political party with its own candidates and platform. But Belmont reassured those who fear that feminists simply want to “get even” for thousands of years of male rule and plan to disempower and restrict men, that this is not the case: Now don’t construe my meaning as that of a woman opposed to men. I am for men, but for women and children first. Men have forgotten us during the past, but we are going to remember them and take them right up an Anyone who thinks the National Woman’s Party must have lost some of its drive or militance after finishing its part of the campaign to put the Susan B. Anthony (now the 19th) Amendment into the Constitution on August 26, 1920, clearly wasn’t at today’s colorful pageant in Colorado Springs, Colorado.