Friday, May 7, 2010

Women in Congress

Our State Library exhibit entitled Massachusetts Women in Politics reminds us that Bay State women also served in the United States Congress.

At the Library's Reference Desk, in Room 341, is a book produced by the Federal Government with the title of Women in Congress, 1917 - 2006. This covers the 65th Congress to the 109th Congress. It is the most comprehensive source of information regarding the 229 women who have served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Three Massachusetts women (Edith Nourse Rogers, Margaret Heckler, and Louise Day Hicks) have represented the Commonwealth during this time period. Edith Nourse Rogers (pictured above), up until 2006, had the longest Congressional tenure of a woman legislator. This is another Massachusetts first!

Please ask the Reference Librarian for the book; it is a jewel.

Reference Staff