(3 of 4)
The 19th Amendment seemed to promise much. It had long been urged not only as a matter of women's rights but as a purification of the political system. Its supporters claimed that women, because of their supposedly higher nature, would vote for measures humane and virtuous, and that they would do so en masse. "The civilization of the world is saved," gushed Democratic Presidential Nominee James Cox in 1920. "The mothers of America will stay the hand of war."
Many politicians were naturally terrified at the prospect of runaway reform. To win the new voters' support, Congress hastened to appropriate $1.25 million for health education for mothers and children. Michigan and Montana passed equal-pay laws. By 1921, some 20 states had granted women the right to serve on juries. But it took only a few years for professional politicians to make three key discoveries: 1) many women did not vote, 2) women did not vote as a bloc, and 3) they often voted exactly like their husbands. The bosses could sigh with relief; the status quo was safe.
That was all too clear in the selection of the first woman to serve in the Senate. She was Rebecca Felton, 87, a veteran suffragist from Georgia. When a Georgia Senator died in 1922, a new man was elected to replace him, but the Governor decided to make a gesture by appointing Felton to the vacant seat until the new Senator could be sworn in. So the Senate suspended its rules for exactly one hour.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal brought new political opportunities for women, partly because innovation suited the spirit of the 1930s, partly because Eleanor Roosevelt was a highly active First Lady, partly because Mary Dewson of the Democrats' women's division organized upwards of 60,000 female precinct workers to get out the female vote. Roosevelt appointed the first woman to the Cabinet (Labor Secretary Frances Perkins), the first female federal appeals court judge, the first female minister to a foreign country. Still, even in 1940,16 states still said a wife could not sign a contract, and eleven said she could not keep her own earnings. World War II solidified women's gains, for millions went to work at jobs they had never had before. In aircraft plants, for example, the number soared from 4,000 to 310,000 between 1941 and 1943. There was even a uniformed Women's Army Corps, and for the first time, women served in the military in significant numbers.