Remembering Pat Schroeder: A Pioneer for Women’s Rights

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Pat Schroeder, an important politician in the United States who fought for women’s and family rights, sadly passed away on Monday night. She was 82 years old.

Her former press secretary, Andrea Camp, reported that Pat had a stroke before she died at a hospital in Celebration, Florida – where she had been living recently.

Pat Schroeder stood up to the most powerful people in government over a span of 24 years by making sure they took women seriously. Although it cost her jobs and political points, she wouldn’t fit into the ‘good old boys club’ which is made up of mainly men, only for this purpose. She didn’t mind embarrassing her fellow members of Congress if it meant sticking up for the feminist movement.

In 1972, Schroeder became a representative for the state of Colorado. Her district in Denver was safe for her, so she got to keep her seat without trouble when people voted over and over again for 11 years. Even though she had been there a long time, she never had a chance to become the head of an important committee at Congress.

Schroeder worked with the Democratic party for many years until 1997, when she finally left. When she said goodbye in 1998, she wrote a book which talked about her experience in politics and how there were so many men in charge who made it hard to make positive changes quickly. The book was called “24 Years of Housework…and the Place is Still a Mess. My Life in Politics”.

In 1987, Schroeder wanted to try and become President by raising money. But then Gary Hart decided he didn’t want to run for President anymore. Three months later, Schroeder announced she wasn’t going to be running either, and she said that the tears she was crying were because of sadness, not weakness. She said her heart wasn’t in it but also that asking people for money wasn’t something she liked doing.

She was the first woman to be on the House Armed Services Committee, but her entry was not welcomed by everyone. The chairman of the panel, F. Edward Hebert, thought that a woman and an African American had no place in the committee and wanted only one of them in it, so he made them share one seat.

Republicans were very angry when Schroeder and several others accused House Speaker Newt Gingrich of breaking the rules of Congress by getting free cable time during his college lecture series. The accusation led to the first time ever that a Speaker was punished by Congress, with Gingrich saying afterwards he felt bad for not taking the complaint seriously enough.

Earlier, she had expressed her disapproval of Newt Gingrich’s idea that women shouldn’t serve in combat because they would get sick from staying in a hole for 30 days. According to her biography, she once said that if the Pentagon officials were women, they wouldn’t be able to say ‘no’ and so they’d always be pregnant.

When someone asked how she could take care of two children while also serving in Congress, she answered them saying “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.”

President Ronald Reagan was given the nickname “Teflon President” because nothing bad stuck to him. One of his biggest successes was signing a law in 1993 that allowed people to have time off work if they had a new baby, needed to care for an ill child or parent.

“Pat Schroeder started it all! Everyone in this room is following in her footsteps,” said Rep. Nita Lowey from New York. She took Pat Schroeder’s place as the leader of a special group that deals with women’s issues.

Schroeder thought that lawmakers were paying too much attention to people who give them money and other powerful interest groups. When House Republicans all got together at the U.S. Capitol in 1994 to mark their first 100 days of power, she and her coworkers climbed up onto the famous dome and attached a very long red banner on it that said “Sold”.

Schroeder was a pilot and paid her way through Harvard Law School with money she earned from providing flying services. After leaving Congress, she became a professor at Princeton University. She said that politics was something important to her and continued helping political candidates that she supported. In addition, she had also taught a graduate school class about ‘The Politics of Poverty’, and led the Association of American Publishers.

Nancy Schroeder was born on July 30, 1940 in Portland, Oregon. She paid for college tuition with her own flying service. After graduating from the University of Minnesota and earning her law degree in 1964, she worked as a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board until 1966. After that, she moved to Florida where she got involved in politics and served on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

James W. Schroeder, who she married in 1962, is the husband of the late person being talked about and their two kids Scott and Jamie are surviving. Steven K. Paulson from Associated Press also helped with this report.