Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (1940–2023) was a trailblazing American politician who served 12 terms from 1973-1997 as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado's 1st district encompassing Denver. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado and one of only 14 women members in the House. She emerged as a national spokesperson for women’s rights. Schroeder, a Harvard Law graduate, was a mother of two young children who successfully navigated Congress and family life. When a male colleague questioned how she could be both a mother and a congresswoman, she famously replied: "I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both". She was the first woman to serve on the Armed Services Committee, sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1987, and was the lead on the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Women’s Health Equity Act. Her autobiography, 24 Years of Housework...and the Place Is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics shares her story about family and politics and how she rose to the challenge of infiltrating the "guy gulag" of Congress.
- Courtesy Tom “Dr. Colorado” Noel and Kendra Black
- Image from the Tom Noel Collection
- For more: https://history.house.gov/Oral-History/Women/Representative-Schroeder/#:~:text=Patricia%20Scott%20Schroeder%20began%20her%2024%2Dyear%20career,the%20chairman's%20objections%E2%80%94to%20leading%20the%20Congresswomen's%20Caucus.