Former US Rep. Pat Schroeder, an outspoken feminist icon over her 20 years in Congress, died Monday night. She was 82.
Schroeder, who recently suffered a stroke, died at a Florida hospital, her former press secretary said.
The previous lawmaker was remembered for taking up her male colleagues as a vocal pioneer for ladies’s and family’s rights during her 24 years representing a House district in Colorado.
“Her leadership for ladies and families made an enduring impact, and Pat was a real trailblazer for thus lots of us. May her memory at all times be a blessing,” tweeted Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state Jena Griswold.
Schroeder was first elected in 1972 and cruised to 11 more election wins at the same time as she offered an unorthodox kind of legislating that didn’t shrink back from publicly calling out – and even shaming – congressional colleagues. She forced government institutions to acknowledge that ladies had a job in government as she battled the powerful elite.
The uniquely confrontational style did cost her though, as she was never appointed to guide a committee. Undeterred, she said she was unwilling to hitch what she considered “the great old boys’ club” just to attain political points.
She butted heads with Republicans and fellow Democrats alike.
Schroeder was one in all several lawmakers that filed an ethics criticism over House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s televised college lecture series with the claim the free cable time he scooped up was essentially an illegal gift under House rules.
Gingrich was the primary speaker ever reprimanded by Congress and he later admitted he should’ve taken Schroeder and her colleagues more seriously.
She also labeled President Ronald Reagan the “Teflon” president for dodging blame for major policy decisions with the name sticking.
She was the primary woman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee, but was forced to share a chair with US Rep. Ron Dellums, who was the primary African American to be seated on the committee.
Schroeder accused committee chair F. Edward Hebert, a Democrat from Louisiana, of forcing her and Dellums to share because he thought the committee was no place for a lady or an African American they usually were only price half a seat.
When a congressman once asked how she might be a mother and lift two babies, she shot back, “I even have a brain and a uterus, and I take advantage of each.”
One among Shroeder’s biggest legislative wins was when a family-leave bill was passed in 1993 that provided job protection for care of a newborn, sick child or a parent.
The Harvard Law School graduate who was born in Portland, Oregon, briefly considered a run for president in 1987, but ultimately she said her heart wasn’t in it.
After she retired in 1997, she offered a parting shot to her former colleagues when she wrote a 1998 book titled “24 Years of Home tasks … and the Place is Still a Mess. My Life in Politics” where she detailed her frustration within the male dominated field and the way change of federal entities happened at a snail’s pace.
The ex-pilot paid for her education at Harvard and the University of Minnesota together with her own flying service.
After Schroeder left Congress, she taught at Princeton University. She remained politically energetic though, mentoring candidates and campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Her last years were spent in Florida, still going door to door and talking to groups.
She leaves behind her husband, who she married in 1962, and their two children, in addition to her brother and 4 grandchildren.
With Post wires
