Bloodless Coup

That New Fangled Idea: Women in the US Government

In a post noting that G. Gordon Liddy doesn't think women should be judges, Karen Tumulty reminds us that his old boss, Richard Nixon, didn't think women should be in any jobs. This reminds me of something that I'm surprised doesn't get more attention - it's only since the mid-1970s that women have had a steady presence as members of the US cabinet. Prior to the mid-1970s, there were only two women in the cabinet - Frances Perkins under Franklin Roosevelt, and Oveta Culp Hobby under Dwight Eisenhower. The combined number of women in the cabinets of Harry Truman, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - 0. It's rather startling that that's left out of discussion of those presdencies, and that discussions of national politics don't more often note that women have held positions of power in Washington for only a mere 30 years or so. Though I suppose the tone of this week's news coverage clearly conveys that it's a new idea that some would like to push back.