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of the 90th congress
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary
WOMEN'S BUREAU

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This publication provides biographical sketches of the twelve women of the
90th Congress of the United States, one of whom is in the Senate and eleven in
the House of Representatives.
The Women's Bureau has prepared this publication in response to many
requests, both from this country and abroad, for information concerning the public
service of these outstanding American women.

Director, Women's Bureau

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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington , D.C. 20402 - Price 25 cents

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CONTENTS

Page
Senator Smith (R) of Maine . . . . .

Representative Bolton (R) of Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Representative Dwyer (R) of New Jersey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Representative Green (D) of Oregon . . . .

Representative Griffiths (D) of Michigan.

Representative Hansen (D) of Washington . . . . .

Representative Heckler (R) of Massachusetts ..

Representative Kelly (D) of New York ..

Representative May (R) of Washington

Representative Mink (D) of Hawaii.

Representative Reid (R) of Illinois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Representative Sullivan (D) of Missouri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Committee Assignments for Women of the 90th Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Number of Women in Congress, 1917-1967 . . . . . . . . . . .

111

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Senator
MARGARET CHASE SMITH (R)
State of Maine
Mrs. Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan, Maine,
1s the 01,ly woman to have served in both Houses of
Congress and to have been elected to four full
tenns in the United States Senate.
Active in the politic al field since 1930, she
served on the Republican State Committee 1930-36;
was secretary to her husband, Congressman Clyde
H. Smith (deceased), 1937-40; and was elected to
the House of Representatives from the Second
Congressional District of Maine 1940-48 and to the
United States Senate in 1948.
Mrs. Smith began her career as a teacher and
was an executive in the telephone, newspaper, and
woolen industries. She was a nationally syndicated
columnist for more than 5 years.
The Senator from Maine was the first woman to
serve on the Anned Services Committee in the
House of Representatives, andreceived Presidential
commendation while a member of the Na val Affairs
Committee of that body. In the Senate she has
served on the Appropriations, Anned Services, Space
Government Operations, Rules, and District of
Columbia Committees. In 1953-54 she was Chairman of the Ammunition Shortage Inve~tigating and
the Reorganization Subcommittees.
In the 90th
Congress she is a member of the Aeronautical and
Space Sciences (ranking Republican), Appropriations,
and Armed Services (ranking Republican) Committees

and the Preparedness Investigating and Central
Intelligence Subcommittees.
On January 10, 1967, Senator Smith was elected
by unanimous vote of all Republican Senators to be
the Chainnan of the Senate Republican Conference.
Mrs. Smith has served as Lieutenant Colonel in
the Air Force Reserve and is an outstanding proponent of Reserve legislation in Congress. She has
been cited by the Air Reserve Association, National
Guard Association, and Reserve Officers Association.
In addition to being one of the 10 most admired
women of the world in the Gallup Poll for many years
(fourth in 1963 and 1964), and being cited repeatedly
by national press and broadcasting organizations as
woman of the year in politics, Mrs. Smith has
received many national honors, including: Woman of
the Year, Associated Press (1948); Woman of the
Year, United Press Radio Editors (1949 and 1964);
Award for Americanism from Freedoms Foundation
(1950); Voice of Democracy Award (1953); Distinguished Service Award from National Federation of
Business and Professional Women's Clubs (1955);
Lord and Taylor Award (1956); International
AchievementAward(1956) and Woman of Achievement
Award (1958), both from Soroptimist International
Association; multiple awards for National Health
Leadership (1960); a "Most Valuable Senator" racing
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by Newsweek Press Gallery Poll (1960); Gold Medal
Award for Humanitarianism, Institute of Social
Sciences (1964); and Minute Man Award of Reserve
Officers Association for individual making greatest
contribution to national security ( 1964).
Mrs. Smith received the Honorary degree of LL.D.
from Wilson College (1945), Alabama College (1949),
Coe College (1949), Smith College (1949, University
of Maine (1949), Bowdoin College (1952), Syracuse
University (1952), University of New Brunswick
(Canada) (1955), Drexel Institute (1955), Wesleyan
University (1955), Tufts University (1955), University
of North Carolina(l955), Columbia University (1955),
Western College for Women (1956), University of
Rhode Island ( 1956), Russell Sage College (1956),
Mills College (1957), Washington College (1957),
Gettysburg College (1958), George Washington
University (1958), Bryant College (1959), Park College (1959), Ursinus College (1961), Beaver College
(1961), Linden wood College (1961), Eastern Michigan
University (1961), Mount Holyoke College (1962),

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Brandeis University (1963), Skidmore College (1964),
Georgian Court College (1964), Lake Erie College
(1965), Whittier College (1965), Kenyon College
(1965), and American International College (1966).
She received the degree of L.H.D. from Hood College (1951), Hamilton College (1955), Lafayette
College (1955), Rollins College (1956), Keuka College (1957), Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1959), and Hahnemann Medical College and
Hospital (1964); and that of Litt.D. from Temple
University (1955). She also holds degrees of M.A.
from Colby College (1943), D.C.L. from Pace College (1956), J .S.D. from Portia Law Sc,hool (1957),
Ed.D. from Lesley College (1959), D.S. from
Muskingum College(l963), Hartwick College (1965),
and D.P.A. from Northeastern University (1964).
The Senator has made extensive trips throughout
the world and has ~onferred with many leaders of
nations. She is regarded as one of America's most
effective ambassadors of good will.

Representative
FRANCES P. BOLTON (R)

Twenty-second Congressional District,
Ohio

Mrs. Frances P. Bolton, the only woman ever
elected to the United States Congress from Ohio, is
now dean of the women in Congress and dean of the
Ohio Republican delegation of 19 members. Elected
in February 1940 to fill the unexpired term of her
late husband, Chester C. Bolton, she has been reelected each succeeding term. In 1947, when she
took a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee
to the Near East, she was the first woman to head
an official congressional mission abroad. In 1952
she was named by President Eisenhower as the first
woman to represent the Congress at the United
Nations. Since January 1963, she has been the
ranking Republican of the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
In 1955 Mrs. Bolton made a 20,000-mile study
tour of Africa, visiting 24 countries south and east
of the Sahara Desert. This was the first official
congressional travel to this area; her report is still
in use in college and seminar studies.
Another
report still widely used in research is ccstrategy and
Tactics of World Communism," issued by the Subcommittee on National and International Movements
when headed by Mrs. Bolton.
Mrs. Bolton was a member of the Mackinac
Conference .1.n 1943 which wrote the first foreign
policy plank of the Republican Party Platform. She

was a delegate and member of the Resolutions
Committee of the Republican National Conventions
in 1956, 1960, and 1964.
Mrs. Bolton has sponsored bills for low-rent
housing units and for equal pay for women, and
legislation making it unlawful to "black-market"
children across State lines for adoption. She was
author of the act that created the Cadet Nurse Corps
during World War II, and was instrumental not only
in equalizing the pay of nurses with that of male
officers of similar rank rut also in changing the
status of nurses from relative to full commissioned
rank as officers in the armed services.
She
successfully sponsored legislation to commission
men nurses as reserve officers in the armed services.
She introduced the first bill in the House to confer
United States citizenship on Winston Churchill.
Educated at the Hathaway-Brown School in
Cleveland and Miss Spence's School in New York,
Mrs. Bolton has been awarded honorary doctorate
degrees from 15 colleges and universities, and values
most highly the doctor of humanities degree given
her by Western Reserve University. She has received
awards and citations for distinguished service from
25 groups and organizations.
The Ohio Representative is an officer of the French
Legion of Honor. She is the Ohio Vice Regent of the
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and a member of

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the following organizations: Cleveland Business
and Professional Women's Club; Women's . City Club
of Cleveland, which awarded her an honorary life
membership in 1961; League of Women Voters,
Cleveland; Daughtets of Colonial Wars of Ohio;
Daughters of the American Revolution; Women's
National Republican Club of New York; Pen and
Brush of New York; League of Republican Women;
Society of Woman Geographers; National Federation
of Women's Clubs; Capitol Hill Club; International
Council of Women; Wilderness Society; and
International Club of Washington, D.C.

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Mrs. Bolton is a trustee of Lakeside Hospital,
Cleveland, Ohio; Lake Erie College, Painesville,
Ohio; Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; Meharry Medical
College, Nashville, Tennessee; Ca pi to 1 Hill
Associates; and for U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
In addition, she serves on the advisory council
of the School of Advanced International Studies
of Johns Hopkins University, Frances Payne
Bolton School of Nursing of Western Reserve
University, Women's Committee of African American Institute, and the Metropolitan Hospital of
Cleveland.

Representative
FLORENCE P. DWYER (R)
Twelfth Congressional District,
New Jersey
Mrs. Florence P. Dwyer, now serving her sixth
term as a member of Congress, is New Jersey's first
Republican Congresswoman. She is a member of the
Committees on Banking and Currency and Government
Operations, ranking minority member of the latter
committee and of the Subcommittees on Intergovernmental Relations and Consumer Affairs, and a
member of the Subcommittee on Housing.
Active in the Republican Party since 1936, Mrs.
Dwyer was e 1 e ct e d delegate-at-large to the
Republican National Convention in 1944 and was
made honorary vice president representing New
Jersey. She was elected alternate delegate-at-large
to the 1948 convention.
Elected to the New Jersey State Legislature in
1949 and reelected in 1951, 1953, and 1955, Mrs.
Dwyer was the first woman to be appointed for 5
consecutive years to the important policymaking
committee of the legislature, and the second woman
to be appointed assistant majority leader of the State
a s s e m b 1 y. Mrs. Dwyer was ch airman of the
assembly's Education Committee and delegate to the
1955 White House Conference on Education. She
has gained wide recognition for her legislative work
in the field of education. She is author of New
Jersey's equal pay for women law, legislation to
control air pollution and to control the sale of
flammable fabrics, and the first mandatory minimum

salary schedule for public school teachers. Prior to
her election to the assembly, Mrs. Dwyer achieved
broad legislative experience as secretary and
parliamentarian to the assembly majority leader and
the speaker. After her election, she attended Rutgers
Law School to further her knowledge of taxation and
law and to increase her effectiveness as a lawmaker.
Mrs. Dwyer first was elected to the 85th Congress
and has been reelected subsequently by progressively
ever larger margins. She received a plurality of
75.6 percent in 1966.
In Congress she has been especially acci ve in the
fields of urban affairs and Federal-State-local relations~ Sponsor of the legi slation creating the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations,
she has served as one of three members from the
House since the Commission was established in 1959.
Her legislative objectives in this field include
strengthening the capacity of State and local governments to meet the needs of their people, improving
cooperation between all levels of govern·m ent, and .
increasing coordination among executive agencies to
eliminate waste and duplication and to improve
program effectiveness. She has sponsored commuter
mass transportation legislation and improvements
to a variety of housing and urban development
programs; proposed cost-of-living increases for
social security beneficiaries and an increase in the

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earnings limitation under social security; cosponsored the Drug Abuse Control Act and the Equal Pay
for Women Act; and appealed for stronger consumer
protection legislation, removal of all forms of discrimination in employment because of age, elimination of air and water pollution, establishment of a
Foreign Service Academy, and the protection of
equal rights and opportunities for all regardless of
race, religion, or sex.
She has been active in such community endeavors
as the PTA and Cub Scouts, the Business and

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Professional Women's Club, and several charitable
organizations. She was regional chairman of the
Red Cross committee for recruitment of nurses during
World War II, and donated her services as public
relations adviser to the New Jersey Nurses'
Association.
Mrs. Dwyer and her husband, M. Joseph Dwyer,
now retired, have lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey,
for more than 40 years. 1hey have one son, Michael
J ., Jr., who is an Annapolis graduate and a major in
the Air Force, and two grandsons.

Representative
EDITH GREEN (D)
Third Congressional District, Oregon

Mrs. Green has represented the Third Oregon
Congressional District--the city of Portland and
surrounding Multnomah County--since 195 5. She is
now serving her seventh tenn in the Congress of the
United States. During her congressional service
Mrs. Green has shown special interest in education
and labor legislation as a member of the House
Education and Labor Committee. She is chainnan
of the Special Subcommittee on Education, which
has jurisdiction over legislation dealing with higher
education. She is also a member of the Merchant
Marine and Fisheries Committee.
Mrs. Green has sponsored and guided to passage
in the House major assistance programs for colleges
One is the Higher Education
and universities.
Facilities Act of 1963, described by President
Johnson as the greatest step forward in Federal
legislation in the field since passage of the LandGrant College Act more than 100 years ago. A second, enacted in September 1964, liberalized the
A third subNational Defense Education Act.
stantially altered the Federal vocational education
program so as to provide help to urban you th.
Other legislation she has sponsored provided:
collegiate nurses' training; aid to handicapped
children; equal pay for equal work; statehood for
Alaska and Hawaii; broader minimum wage coverage;
congressional standard of ethics and disclosure of

all sources of income of Members of Congress;
social security improvements; liberalized immigration
laws; creation of a Bureau of Older Persons;
desegregation of hospital facilities built with
Federal funds; and establishment of the Anns
Control and Disarmament Agency.
Mrs. Green was born in Trent, South Dakota, on
January 17, 1910. She attended Salem, Oregon,
public schools and Willamette University. Subsequently she received her B.S. degree from the
University of Oregon. She did graduate work at
Stanford University, and has been awarded honorary
degrees of doctor of humanities, doctor of laws, and
doctor of humane letters from eighteen colleges
and universities, including Linfield and Reed in
Oregon and Oberlin, Georgetown University, and
Yale University.
Mrs. Green taught in public schools in Oregon for
14 years. In addition, she served as public relations director of the Oregon Educa cion Association.
Mrs. Green was selected for the Brotherhood Award
Two years later she
of B'nai B'rith in 1956.
was named Woman of the Year by the national
AMVETS Auxiliary. She has received the Eleanor
Roose v e 1 t-Mary Bethune National CitizenshipShe received the Distinguished Service
Award.
Award of the National Association of Colored
Women's Clubs in 1962 and of the American
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College Public Relations Association in 1964. She
likewise has been honored by the Young Women's
Christian Association and the National Council of
Jewish Women. She also received the National
Business and Professional Women "Top Hat Award."
In politics, Mrs. Green served on the Platform
Committee at the Democratic National Convention
in 1956. She seconded the presidential nomination
of Adlai E. Stevenson. In 1960 she was chairman of
the Oregon delegation to the Democratic National
Convention--the first woman ever to head a State
delegation of her party. And at that time, she was
asked to second the presidential nomination of John
F. Kennedy. Mrs. Green was a delegate to the 1964
national convention.

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Mrs. Green was a member of the President's
Commission on the Status of Women and was a
delegate to the 1964 and 1966 UNESCO general
conferences in Paris.
Representative Green is a member of the League
of Women Voters, the Business and Professional
Women's Clubs, the Urban League, and the American
Association of University Women. She is a member
of the First Christian Church.
She is an honorary
member of Delta Kappa Gamma Sorority, an honorary
educational group, and of Delta Sigma Theta, an
honorary service sorority.
She has two sons, James, a high school teacher
in Oregon, and Richard, a graduate student at
the University of Delaware.

Representative
MARTHA W. GRIFFITHS (D)
Seventeenth Congressional District,

Michigan

Mrs. Martha W. Griffiths was elected to the 84th
Congress, and reelected to the 85th, 86th, 87th,
88th, 89th, and 90thCongresses.She was appointed
to the Joint Economic Committee (1961), and elected
to the Ways and Means Committee (1962). She is
presently chairman of the Subcommittee on Fiscal
Policy of the Joint Economic Committee. Formerly
she was a member of the House Banking and Currency
and Government Operations Committees.

Congresswoman Griffiths served in the Michigan
State Legislature from 1948 to 1952 . She was
judge and recorder of the Recorder's Court of the
city of Detroit in 1953 arid member of the Detroit
City Election Commission.
Mrs. Griffiths received her B.A. degree from the
University of Missouri and her LL.B. from the University of Michigan. She is married to Hicks G.
Griffiths, attorney, Detroit, Michigan.

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Representative
JULIA BUTLER HANSEN (D)
Third Congressional District,
Washington
Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen is now
serving her fifth term in the Congress. She was
elected in 1960 simultaneously to the unexpired
term of former Congressman Russell V. Mack in the
86th Congress and the regular term in the 87th
Congress, and was reelected in 1962 for the 88th
Congress by an overwhelmingly large majority. Mrs.
Hansen was a member of the Committee on Education
and Labor and its Subcommittees on Education,
the National Labor Relations Board, and the Impact
of Imports and Exports on American Employment.
She was also a member of the Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs and its Subcommittees on
Territorial and Insular Affairs, Public Lands, and
Indian Affairs. In the 90th Congress, Mrs. Hansen
is a member of the Appropriations Committee and
its Subcommittees on Interior and Foreign Operations.
When appointed to the House Appropriations Committee, she became the second woman in the history
of the United States Congress to serve on it.
Active in the Democratic Party throughout her
life, Mrs. Hansen was a member of the Washington
State House of Representatives from 1939 through
1960 and speaker pro tempore 1955-60. She served
continuously as a member of the Education Committee and was chairman of the committee in 1941,
1943, 1945; chairman of the Roads and Bridges Committee in 1949, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959; chairman

of the Joint Fact Finding Committee on Highways,
Streets, and Bridges in 1949, 1951, 1957, 1959;
and chairman of the Eleven Western States Highway Policy Committee in 1951-60. In the field of
education in her State, Mrs. Hansen sponsored
major legislation covering teachers' retirement,
tenure, salary increases, school building program,
lunches, nursery schools, school district reorganization, and basic support laws. She sponsored
legislation to construct and streamline Washington's
highways, and to establish a highway commission,
limited access laws, and the highway merit system.
She was State vice chairman of Young Democrats,
1939; chairman, Nine-County League, 1944-45; and
chairman, Wahkiakum County Democrats, 1936-60.
She served 8 years on the Cathlamet City Council.
Mrs. Hansen holds a B.A. degree from the
University of Washington. Her family moved to
Washington Territory in 1877 and settled in the
Columbia River country in 1880. She is the author
of a widely read historical novel for young people
about the Northwest, for which she received a
national prize; and she has written extensively for
the press.
During the 87th, 88th, and 89th Congresses she
sponsored legislation on equal rights, lumber,
power, veterans' benefits, in addition to bills for
her State. She is interested in all legislative fields,
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particularly labor, area resources, and transportation
problems.During the 89th Congress she introduced
bills ranging from trade and flood control to bills
benefiting veterans and Indians.
She is an honorary State member of Delta Kappa
Gamma, from which she received an award in 1949

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for "Outstanding Service to the Cause of Education,"
and is a member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, Order of Eastern Star, and the Business
and Professional Women's Club.
Mrs. Hansen is married to Henry A. Hansen,
retired, and they have one son, J?avid.

Representative
MARGARET M. HECKLER (R)
Tenth Congressional District,
Massachusetts

Mrs. Margaret M. (O'Shaughnessy) Heckler of
Wellesley, Massachusetts, is serving her first term
as a Member of Congress. She has been appointed
to membership on the Committee on Government
Operations and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Mrs. Heckler was born in Flushing, Long Island,
New York, on June 21, 1932. She received her B.A.
degree from Albertus Magnus College and attended
the University of Leiden, Holland, as an exchange
student.
In 1956 she received her LL.B. from
Boston College Law School, where she was an
editor of the Law Review. During her college days,
Mrs. Heckler was elected the Sp~aker of the House
at the Connecticut Inter-Collegiate Student Legislature and presided over the student convention at
the State Capitol in Hartford.
Later in 1956 Mrs. Heckler was admitted to the
Massachusetts bar.
She has been a practicing
attorney for more than 10 years and was admitted to
practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mrs. Heckler was a student director for General
Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign in
1952 and was founder of the Young Republican Club
at Boston College in 1954. She was elected vice
president of the Women's Republican Club of
Massachusetts in 1958 and served as women's
coordinator in the congressional campaign of Hon.
F. Bradford Morse in 1%0. She was a member of the
Republican Town Committee in Wellesley, Massachusetts, from 1958 to 1966.
Elected to the
Governor's Executive Council in 1963, Mrs. Heckler
served as the only Republican member until 1967.
She is a member of the Foxboro Business and
professional Women's Club, the Boston Bar Association, Massachusetts Trial Lawyers Association,
and the Women Lawyers Association. In 1965 Mrs.
Heckler was named an Outstanding Young Woman of
America.
The Congresswoman is married to John M.
Heckler, an industrial investment broker. They
have three children, Belinda, 10, Alison, 8, and
John, 6 .

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Representative
EDNA F. KELLY (D)
Twelfth Congressional District,
New York

Mrs. Edna F. Kelly, elected in November 1949 to
the 2d session of the 81st Congress and reelected
to date, is the first woman elected to Congress
from Brooklyn, New York.
In 1942 Mrs. Kelly was appointed associate
~Erector, and in 1944 director of research for the
Democratic delegation in the New York State Legislature. She held this post until her election to the
U.S. House of Representatives.
Mrs. Kelly is
Democratic National Committeewoman for the State
of New York.
Since 1951 Mrs. Kelly has been a member of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives.
She is chainnan of its Subcommittee on Europe, whose scope includes all
European nations, embracing Greece and Turkey,
the Commonwealth nations, territories and protectorates of the European nations, and Russia and
the captive nations. Mrs. Kelly is ranking majority
member of the Subcommittee on State Department
Organization and Foreign Operations, which has
jurisdiction over the entire operation of the State
Department, embassy and consular buildings abroad,
and the Foreign Service. She is a member (and
fonner Chairman) of the United States-Canada
Interparliamentary Group.
By appointment of the late President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, Mrs. Kelly served as a member

of the United States delegations to the 18th Genera]
Assembly of the United Nations.
Mrs. Kelly has sponsored and/or supported
legislation on the Peace Corps; the U.S. Arms
Control and Disannament Agency; the Cultural
Exchange Act of 1961; amendments to the Immigraand Nationality Act; the Kelly Amendment to the
Mutual Security Act, providing for U.S. participation
in the Intergovernmental Committee for European
Migration, under which more than one million
European refugees have been resettled; increases
in the minimum wage; the Equal Pay Act of 1963,
providing equal pay for equal work for women; the
Voting Assistance Act of 1965; establishment of
the Civil Rights Commission; the Civil Rights Act
of 1964; removal of earnings restrictions on social
security recipients; income tax deductions for
transportation costs of disabled taxpayers; income
tax deductions for dependents' higher educational
expenses; increased tax deductions for child care
expenses of working mothers; amendments to the
Civil Service Retirement Act to prevent loss of
eligibility by widows who remarry; less stringent
requirements to gain eligibility for disability
benefits under the Social Security Act; removal
of social security benefits from consideration
in detennining eligibility for veterans' pensions;
amendments to the Federal Voting Assistance Act,
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to facilitate voting by those in military service;
time off for Government employees to comply
with religious obligations; eradication of ragweed;
establishment of a Joint Committee on Intelligence Matters; establishment of a select committee, to investigate the rapid rise in food
prices, including dairy products.
In 1960 Mrs. Kelly was the recipient of the
Second Annual Brooklyn Award of the Urban League
of Greater New York. She has been honored by the
United Jewish Appeal, Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies, and the Flatbush
Boys' Club.
In May 1962 Marymount College presented Mrs.
Kelly with the Mother Gerard Phelan Award for
leadership as a model Christian woman in her home
her career, and her public life. In April 1964 Mrs:
Kelly addressed the Business and Professional
Affiliate of the American ORT (Organization for
Rehabilitation Through Training) Federation and
was the recipient of a service pin from this organization. In September 1964 Mrs. Kelly was honored
by the League of Women Voters.

In 1964 Mrs. Kelly was awarded the 10th Anni versary Commemorative Medal and Scroll by the
Assembly of Captive European Nations, in appreciation of her role as chainnan of the Subcommittee on
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Europe and her constant support of the cause of the
captive nations in general.
In 1965 Mrs. Kelly was given the Woman of the
Year award by the Assembly of Brooklyn Jewish
Women's Organizations. In the same year she was
named Woman of the Year by the Ladies' Auxiliary,
Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America,
New York Department.
In October 1966 the Ukrainian Congress Committee, Inc. bestowed its Shevchenko Freedom Award
upon Mrs. Kelly, in recognition of her efforts in
behalf of the independence of the Ukraine.
Mrs. Kelly was graduated from Hunter College,
where she majored in history and economics. In
May 1965 she received an honorary doctor of humane
letters degree from Russell Sage College, Troy, New
York. Mrs. Kelly is vice president of the women's
advisory council of Oblate College, Washington,
D.C., and is a member of the board of directors,
Marymount College, Arlington, Virginia.
She is
active in Red Cross and cancer drives, church
charities, the Greater New York Fund, the United
Jewish Appeal, and numerous child welfare causes.
Mrs. Kelly is the widow of Edward L Kelly,
City Court Justice of the City of New York. She has
two children, William E. Kelly, 2d and Maura
Patricia Kelly, and eight grandchildren.

Representative
CATHERINE MAY (R)
Fourth ConKressional District,
Washington

Congresswoman Catherine May is the first woman
to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
from the State of Washington, and is the State's
first Representative to serve on the Committe on
on Agriculture. A former teacher, writer, commentator,
and producer of radio programs, she began her political
career when she was elected to the Washington
State House of Representatives in 1952 where she
served for6 years. She was first elected to Congress
in 1958 and has served in the U.S. House of Representatives continuously for five terms. She makes
her home in the city in which she was born, Yakima,
Washington.
Mrs. May holds a degree in education from the
University of Washington, was head of the high
school English department of Chehalis, Washington,
for 4 years, and later served as a writer with the
National Broadcasting Company in New York. She
also was associated with broadcasting activities in
the State of Washington.
In her home State, Mrs. May served as vice chairman of the Governor's Statewide Commi tte on
Educational Television; was legislative chairman
of the Washington State Federation of Republican
Women's Clubs, was a member of the Governor's
Safety Council, the Washington Association for
Retarded Children, the Young Republican Federation,
Alpha Chi Omega, Business and Professional

Women; and is an honorary member of Zonta, Altrusa,
and Soroptomist Clubs. She is a member of St.
Michael's Episcopal Church in Yakima.
In the 90th Congress, Mrs. May is senior ranking
Republican on Livestock and Grains, Farm Labor, and
Consumer Relations Subcommittees of the Committee
on Agriculture. She is third ranking Republican
member on the Forests Subcommitte. Mrs. May was
one of five members of the House of Representatives
serving on the National Commission on Food
Marketing, which in 1965 and 1966 studies and
reported on the structure and performance of the
American food marketing system. In the fall of
1965 Mrs. May was a United States delegate to the
Interparliamentary Union Conference at Ottawa,
Canada, and in 1967 was appointed as a delegate to
Interparliamentary Union Conference in Majorca,
Spain. In the 89th Congress Mrs. May was appointed
to membership on the Committee on Standards and
Conduct formed as a bipartisan study group on
standards and conduct for Members of the House of
Representatives.
In 1962 Mrs. May was one of six members of the
House of Representatives to serve on the Joint
Committee on Republican Principles and was
president of the Western Regional Republican
Conference in the 89th Congress.
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In 1959 she was recipient of the McCall's
magazine ''Togetherness'' award and in the Theta
Sigma Phi Matrix Table award, and in 1960 she was
named "Woman of the Year" by Alphia ChiOmega.
And in 1965 Mrs. May was the first person to receive
the annual award of the Washington State Home
Economics Association for outstanding contributions
to home and family life. She was presented with the
Distinguished Service award in 1966 by the Consumer Education Council, Inc. She is much rn
demand as a speaker.
Devoting special interest to the problems of
American agriculture, Congresswoman May is also a

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consistent supporter of electric power development;
proper utilization of timber, land, and water resources;
and orderly development of reclamation. She also is
active on behalf of selective assistance for education,
handicapped children, and juvenile delinquency
prevention. She is noted for her active battles in
Congress against inflationary Federal policies.
Mrs. May's husband, James O. May, is a Yakima,
Washington, realtor.
They have two children:
James, 21, and Melinda, 16. The family maintains
a home in Yakima, Washington, and during sessions
of Congress resides in Bethesda, Maryland, near
Washington, D.C.

Representative
PATSY TAKEMOTO MINK (D)
At large, Hawaii
Mrs. Patsy Takemoto Mink of Honolulu, Hawaii,
is now serving her second term as a Member of
Congress from Hawaii. She is a member of the
Education and Labor and the lnte.rior and Insular
Affairs Committees.
Active as a member of the Democratic Party of
Hawaii since 1953, she was charter president of the
Young Democrats of Oahu (1954), member of the
National Democratic Platfonn Committee (1960),
delegate to the National Young Democratic Convention (1957, 1959, 1961 ), and national vice president of
the Nationa·l Young Democrats of America (1957-59).
1he Representative from Hawaii was born in
Paia, Maui, and attended Maui High School, where
she was president of the student body (1944). She
earned a B.A. degree from the University of Hawaii
(1948) and a J .D. degree from the University of
Chicago (1951).
Mrs. Mink was a lecturer at the University of
Hawaii (1952-56, 1959-62), and was attorney for
the House of Representatives of the Territorial
Legislature (1955). She was elected to the Hawaii
House of Representatives (1956) and to the Hawaii
Senate ( 1958, 1962). During 1963-64 she was a
member of the following committees of the Hawaii
Senate: Education (chainnan,) Land, and Ways and
Means. She sponsored an equal-pay-for-equal-work
law for Hawaii.

In the 89th Congress Mrs. Mink authored a bill to
provide for a national elementary and secondary
teachers sabbatical leave program, which passed the
Committee on Education and Labor. She is secretary
of the 89th Democratic Congressional Club and is
on the Steering Committee of Members of Congress
for Peace Through Law.
Mrs. Mink has been_active in community affairs.
She was a director of Lanakila Crafts, a charitable
organization to help the handicapped; a director of
the Hawaii Chapter, American Association for the
United Nations; director of the Hawaii Association
To Help Retarded Children; and director of the
Rural YMCA Chapter, Oahu. She is a member of
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and serves on the Board of Directors
of the Honolulu Symphony.
In April 1965 Congresswoman Mink received an
appreciation award from the Washington D C
Business and Professional Women's Feder;tion° f~~
the ccOutstanding Woman in Politics." In May 1966 she
received a distinguished service award in the fields
of education and labor from the Washington and
Vicinity Federation of Women's Clubs. She was
cited on July 17, 1965, by President Johnson for her
work in the field of education. In July 1966 the
Japanese American Citizens League honored her as
ccNisei of the Biennium."

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Her honorary degrees include a J .D. from
Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri, and an
L.H.D. from Wilson College, Pennsylvania.
In
addition, she was presented with an honorary degree

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by Duff's Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Mink is married to John Francis Mink, a
hydrologist-geologist, and they have a 14-year-old
daughter, Gwendolyn.

Representative

CHARLOTTE T. REID (R)
Fifteenth Congressional District,.
I /lino is

Mrs. Charlotte T. Reid of Aurora, Illinois, is
serving her third term in the Congress. She was
first elected to the 88th Congress in 1962 and was
subsequently reelected in 1964 and 1966. In the
last election, Mrs. Reid was elected with a majority
of over 72 percent. She represents the 15th District
of Illinois, which consists of De Kalb, Grundy,
Kane, Kendall, and La Salle counties.
Representative Reid, after being graduated from
East Aurora High School and attending Illinois
College, studied voice in Chicago and for 3 years
was the featured vocalist on NBC and Don McNeill's
Breakfast Club, singing under the name of "Annette
King." In 1938 she married an Aurora attorney,
Frank R. Reid, Jr., and worked with him in many
local political contests and in . his successful
primary campaign for Congress prior to his death.
Mrs. Reid has four children: Mrs. George Lindner
(Patricia), Frank, Edward (Tom), and Susan.
Mrs. Reid has always had a deep interest in
civic and charitable organizations.
She holds
memberships in the Aurora Business and Professional
Women's Club, Woman's Club of Aurora, Altrusa
Club of Aurora, Illinois Federation of Republican
Women, U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and National
Rivers and Harbors Congress, and serves on the
National Advisory Board of Young Americans for
Freedom, Inc., the board of governors of the Capitol

Hill Club, and the board of trustees of the Federal
Woman's Award. She holds honorary memberships in
the League of Republican Women of the District of
Columbia, Republican Women of Capitol Hill, and
the Teenage Republican Advisory Committee of the
Young Republican National Federation.
During the 88th and 89th Congresses, Mrs. Ried
served · as one of six congressional members of the
board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts. She was the first secretary
of the Republican 88th Congress Club, and has
represented the 88th Club on the Republican Policy
Committee. Since being elected to Congress, Mrs.
Reid has served as secretary to the Illinois Republican delegation. Further recognition of her service
to the Republican Party and in the Congress was
given when she was selected to be one of two firstterm Members of the House of Representatives to
speak at the opening session of the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
During Representative Reid's first and second
terms in Congress, she served on the Committee on
Interior and Insular Affairs and three of its subcommittees: Territorial and Insular Affairs (ranking
Republican), Mines and Mining, and Indian Affairs.
In the 89th Congress, she was given an additional
committee assignment: the Committee on Public
Works. She served on four of its subcommittees:
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Flood Control, Watershed Development, Roads, and
the Special Subcommittee on the Federal-Aid
Highway Program.
In the 90th Congress, Mrs. Reid was selected to
serve on one of the key committees of the United
States Congress: the House Committee on Appropriations. Her subcommittee assignments are: Foreign

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Operations and Treasury-Post Office. All appropriation bills to provide money for Government
operations originate in this committee, and it has
the largest membership in the House of Representatives. Due to the heavy workload of this committee
its members are not permitted to accept assignments
on any other committees.

Representative

LEONOR K. SULLIVAN (D)
Third Congressional District,
Missouri

Mrs. Leonor K. Sullivan, now serving her eighth
tenn, is the only woman to have served in Congress
from the State of Missouri. She is the widow of
Representative John Berchmans Sullivan, who was
serving his fourth tenn in the Congress at the time
of his death in 1951.
A native of St. Louis, Mrs. Sullivan represents
a district located wholly within the borders of that
city. She resigned as training executive for a St.
Louis business machines corporation when she
married the Congressman in 1941, and later served
as his administrative assistant. In 1952, after a
special election had filled the vacancy in the 82d
Congress caused by her husband's death,
Mrs. Sullivan decided to run for his fonner seat and
won election to the 83d Congress. She was subsequently reelected to the 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th,
88th, 89th, and 90th Congresses.
Known throughout her career in Congress for her
strong interest in consumer issues, Mrs. Sullivan
is a senior member of the House Committee on Banking
and Currency and chainnan . of its Subcommittee on
Consumer Affairs, with primary legislative responsibility for the "truth in lending" bill which she
introduced, and for other consumer issues within the
committee's jurisdiction. As a member of the Subcommittee on Housing, she has played a leading
role in the preparation of all housing bills passed

by the House smce 1955--sponsoring, particularly,
housing for the elderly and a new FHA loan insurance
program for nonprofit organizations to rehabilitate
inexpensive homes for sale at 3 percent mortgage
financing to low-income familes. She also helped
draft a series of major measures to bolster national
economic conditions, including the Area Redevelopment Act, the Small Business Investment Act, the
Export Credit Insurance Act, the Mass Transit Act,
and the Community Facilities Act.
A ranking
member also of the House Committee on Merchant
Marine and Fisheries, Mrs. Sullivan has served as
chainnan of its Subcommittee on the Panama Canal
since 1957, directing numerous studies in to the
operational problems and activities of the Panama
Canal Company.
Besides her own committee responsibilities,
Mrs. Sullivan has participated actively on legislation
of consumer interest before other committees, and
was instrumental in the passage of the Poultry
Products Inspection Act of 1957, establishing
for the first time compulsory Federal Inspection of
poultry in interstate commerce; a series of annual
increases in the appropriations for the Food and
Drug Administration (Health, Education, and Welfare
Department) and of the Meat and Poultry Inspection
Divisions (Agriculture Department); the Food
Additives Act of 1958, requiring pretesting for
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safety of all chemical additives used in or on foodstuffs; the anticancer provision--dealing with
artificial coloring used in foods, drugs, and cosmecics--of the Color Additives Act of 1960; the
Hazardous Substances Labeling Act of 1961; the
far-reaching Drug Control Act of 1962, including the
major provisions relating to prescription drugs first
proposed by her 18 months earlier as part of an
omnibus bill to rewrite the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
Act of 1938; and the Drug Abuses Control Act of
1965, dealing with "pep" pills, barbiturates, LSD,
etc., also taken from her omnibus measure. Other
provisions of the omnibus bill_, H.R. 1235, not yet
enacted, call for pretesting for safety ofall ingredients in cosmetics; premarketing clearance of all
health devices; a ban on flavored aspirin; stronger
factory inspection standards for all products subject to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; stricter
labeling requirements; and many other consumer
protections. She has worked also for automobile
safety and the regulation of hazardous materials in
industry.
Congresswoman Sullivan was the author of the
food stamp law enacted in 1959 for the distribution
of surplus agricultural commodi ties to needy
Americans through regular grocery stores.
A
modified food stamp plan was instituted by the
late President Kennedy. This led to her introduction
in the 88th Congress of an administration food stamp
bill which was enacted on August 31, 1964, and now
assures good nutrition for 2 million needy Americans.
In 1957 Mrs. Sullivan drafted and introduced for
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the first time the exceptional children educational
assistance bill to encourage experienced teachers
to take advanced training in the skills of teaching
gifted children or those with physical or emotional
handicaps. In subsequent Congresses, parts of this
program were enacted to establish fellowship
programs for teachers of mentally retarded children
and those with speech and hearings defects.Congress
finally broadened the program to include teachers
of all categories of handicapped children. Mrs.
Sullivan cosponsored the Equal Pay Act of 1963,
and introduced bills to provide full social security
benefits for women retiring at age 62 and deductibility for income tax purposes of all educational
expenses.
Educated in public and private schools in St.
Louis, Mrs. Sullivan also attended night classes in
vocational psychology at Washington University there.
She is a member of the League of Women Voters
and of the Auxiliary of the first American Legion
Post established in the United States.
She is Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus,
an elective post she held also in the 87th and 89th
Congresses, and is the only woman serving (and
was the first woman to serve) on the Democratic
Steering Committee of the House.
Mrs. Sullivan was the senior House mem her on
the National Commission on Food Marketing, which
conducted a 2-year investigation from 1964 to 1966
into all aspects of food marketing from farmer to
consumer.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS OF WOMEN IN THE 90th CONGRESS

Women Members of Congress have assignments to 3 of the 16 Standing Committees of the
Senate, and to 10 of the 20 Standing Committees of the House of Representatives, as well as other
separate assignments.

Committees of the SENATE
Aeronautical and Space Sciences
Appropriations
Armed Services
Margaret Chase Smith (R)

Committees of the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Agriculture
Catherine May (R)
Appropriations
Julia Butler Hansen (D)
Charlotte T. Reid (R)
Banking and Currency
Florence P. Dwyer (R)
Leonor K. Sullivan (D)
Education and Labor
Edith Green (D)
Patsy T. Mink (D)
Foreign Affairs
Frances P. Bolton (R)
Edna F. Kelly (D)

Government Operations
Florence P. Dwyer (R)
Margaret M. Heckler (R)
Interior and Insular Affairs
Patsy T. Mink. (D)
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Edith Green (D)
Leonor K. Sullivan (D)
Veterans' Affairs
Margaret M. Heckler (R)
Ways and Means
Martha W. Griffiths (D)

Joint Economic Committee of the SENATE and the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Representative Martha W. Griffiths (D)

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NUMBER OF WOMEN IN CONGRESS, 1917-1967

Congress

90th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
89th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
88th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
87th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
86th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
85th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81st................................
80th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71st. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
68th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
67th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
66th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
65th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Total

Senate

12
12
13
19
17
16
17
13
11
10
8
10
9
10
9

1
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
1

1
1
1

8
8
8
9
5
3
1
4

2
1
1

House

11
10

11
17
16
15
*16
11
10

9
8
10
8

9
8

6
6
7
7

5
3
1

*Includes the delegate from Hawaii.

27
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1967 0 - 263-541

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Full text of Women in the ... Congress : 90th

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