Bella Abzug

American Flag

The Flag of the United States of America

"This woman's place is in the House–the House of Representatives."

Women in politics have been very often overlooked. We can see that even in our current US Senate, which contains 100 seats, only women take up 25 of those. In the 1970s there were no women in the Senate. There were 18 women in the US House of Representatives, and now there are 125 women. This is out of 435 seats. So, women take up roughly 28% of available seats in the House of Representatives. Although we can say that there is an obvious increase, it is depressing that in half a century we have only gotten to this point. This truly highlights the situation that women in the United States have to go through.

Bella Abzug speaks to construction workers, 1976.

Lane, Bettye. Bella Abzug speaking to construction workers, 1976. Jewish Women's Archive. https://jwa.org/sites/default/files/mediaobjects/baconst.jpg

However, there are many trailblazers who made this journey for equality alone. They trekked the difficult path first—leaving a road for others behind them. One such trailblazer is Bella Abzug. She was the first ever woman to run for a Congressional seat with the use of pro-feminist ideals in her campaign. She was the first woman to run for the position of mayor in New York City. Although she did not successfully secure the seat, she was an example for other women. She has started many organizations and made multiple efforts for equality in the US. It's her efforts that brought us closer to equality.

Timeline