THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 28, 1994 TAG: 9411280069
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CURT ANDERSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Only one woman has ever wielded a gavel as chair of a standing committee in the Senate, and just five have done so in the House.
But when the new Republican-led Congress convenes in January, two women from Kansas will have to find a suitable alternative to the traditional honorific ``Mr. Chairman.''
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, in line to be the first female chair in the Senate since 1945 when she takes the reins of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, says she simply prefers being known as ``chairman.''
Rep. Jan Meyers says she hasn't thought yet about how she wants to be addressed when she takes the chair of the House Small Business Committee. Meyers will be the first woman to chair a House committee since 1977.
Overall, the Nov. 8 elections brought one additional woman to each of the houses of Congress. There will be eight female senators in the 100-member Senate and 48 women out of 435 representatives in the House.
Only relatively recently have women gained this level of representation in Congress. And once there, they have faced a well-ingrained seniority system.
Even the women who have made it to committee chairmanships have not held positions of significant power. Besides the six who chaired legislative committees, three others headed select committees formed to study single issues, including two who presided over the defunct Committee on House Beauty Shop.
Ruth B. Mandel, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said women tend to be more bipartisan than their male counterparts, regardless of political stripe.
``Research has shown that women officeholders are most likely to opt for a style of governing that is more inclusive and open than that favored by men,'' she said.
Kassebaum, 62, stands to become the most powerful female committee chair in Senate history.
The only other woman to hold such a position was Arkansas Democrat Hattie Wyatt Caraway, who chaired the defunct Committee on Enrolled Bills until 1945.
The committee to be chaired by Kassebaum has jurisdiction over education, job training and labor programs, public health, the arts and the aged.
It will play a central role in reform of the welfare system, certain to be a top priority of both President Clinton and Congress, as well as any health reform legislation.
Kassebaum already has proposed a swap in which the federal government would give states responsibility for three of the major welfare programs, taking in turn full control of the Medicaid program.
``I think Nancy's going to start very early on welfare reform hearings,'' said incoming Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[list]
CHAIRWOMEN IN CONGRESS
SENATE
-Hattie Wyatt Carraway, D-Ark. (1931-45). Committee on Enrolled
Bills.
HOUSE
-Mae Ellen Nolan, R-Calif. (1923-25). Committee on Expenditures in
the Post Office Department.
-Mary Teresa Norton, D-N.J. (1925-51). Committees on District of
Columbia, Labor, Memorials and House Administration.
-Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day, D-N.Y. (1935-43). Committee on
Election of President, Vice President and Representatives.
-Edith Nourse Rogers, R-Mass. (1925-1960). Committee on Veterans
Affairs.
-Leonor Sullivan, D-Mo. (1953-1977). Committee on Merchant Marine
and Fisheries.
SELECT
-Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, D-Calif. (1973-79). Committee on House
Beauty Shop.
-Martha Wright Griffiths, D-Mich. (1955-75). Committee on House
Beauty Shop.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN CONGRESS by CNB