The Trailblazing Republican Congresswoman You May Have Never Heard of

In the annals of trailblazing Republican women, few have more claims to fame than Margaret Heckler.

The only woman in her law school class, Heckler became the first woman from Massachusetts to get elected to Congress without succeeding her husband. She also convinced Ronald Reagan to promise that he would name the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court—a promise he kept with his first Supreme Court nomination.

What follows is a selection of readings from the book “A Woman of Firsts: Margaret Heckler, Political Trailblazer,” written by Kimberly Heckler, Margaret’s daughter-in-law.

Running for Congress

Heckler entered Congress after running against Rep. Joseph W. Martin, R-Mass., in the 1966 primary. Martin, then 82, has twice served as speaker of the House. Here are three selections from Chapter 7: Giant Killer and Chapter 8: A Woman’s Place Is In the House:

Despite his age, Martin’s likability and longstanding status in the House made him a formidable rival for Margaret. The political risk of challenging an incumbent from your own party was bold, but to challenge a forty-two-year incumbent and two-time Speaker of the House would seem like political suicide. Nonetheless, Margaret was undeterred. (62)

With few women running for elected positions in the 1960s, Margaret was an easy target for the press. … Media pundits posed incisive questions about whether it was appropriate for a woman to be a politician, and they speculated about whether Margaret was neglecting her family responsibilities. Reporters continually asked Margaret why she was not at home taking care of her children. Margaret responded that her children were well cared for by herself, the family, and a beloved Norwegian nanny, Oiget.

Early in her race, an editor at the West Roxbury Transcript advised Margaret, “You need to get in a man’s world. You need to dress like them.” Heeding this prudent political advice, Margaret most often chose to wear a gray women’s suit. She found that wearing gray pinstripes neutralized the public’s response to a female candidate. When she wore a gray suit, questions about her being a wife and mother diminished. (68-69)

The Congressional Quarterly recorded that the lone victorious nonincumbent woman in the Ninetieth Congress was Margaret Heckler. (76)

Securing the Right to Credit

Although women received the right to vote in 1920, banks would not lend to women, so they remained dependent on their husbands and fathers in terms of finance. Heckler changed that, with the help of Rep. Bella Abzug, D-N.Y. Her chief of staff, Edmund Rice, helped record her work on the issue. What follows are four selections from Chapter 10: Women Finally Get Credit.

Women’s suffrage was achieved by the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920; however, the right to vote was only part of the women’s rights movement. It also required the power of the purse, which needed to be achieved by legislation giving women the right to credit. The early 1970s were a perfect storm for women’s rights and Margaret was in the right place at the right time and in a position to make a difference. 

Her memories of being denied a mortgage in the 1950s—as a practicing female attorney in Boston—were seared into her mind. Margaret had joined the Committee on Banking and Currency (commonly known as the House Banking Committee) during her first term in Congress, determined to ensure women were granted economic justice and fair treatment under the law. She was one of only two women to serve on that male-dominated committee in 1968, and the House Banking Committee was where any legislation regarding women’s credit would need to be discussed.

According to U.S. law, women were simply not equal to men in areas of finance, and were unable to be granted credit in their own name. Quite simply, women were 100 percent dependent upon their husbands or fathers when it came to securing loans or credit, with no consideration given to their own earning power.

In a Good Housekeeping interview, Margaret noted, “I feel it is important for every woman to have at least her own economic identity established through a personal credit rating.”

Well into the 1970s, banks were consistently denying women access to credit in their own names. Without credit reform, women’s economic freedom was severely limited. Women could not open a credit account in their own name or take out a loan or qualify for a home mortgage without their husband’s or father’s signature.

Although women were obtaining college degrees and now made up a growing share of the American workforce, they were barred from securing their own financial futures. The credit discrimination era was quickly forgotten in American collective memory. (105-106)

 “If it was just Abzug, no Republicans would have supported the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. It took a bipartisan effort. It took Mrs. Heckler to get it through the House,” emphasized [Heckler’s chief of staff, Edmund] Rice. (107)

According to Rice, “The work in the Banking Committee, the work in the House, the work to find the allies—all of this Margaret Heckler had the lead on; others were there rhetorically. But all the hard work was Margaret Heckler.” (108)

In 1975, with the implementation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Americans could not have predicted the ubiquitous use of credit in an increasingly cashless world. Credit cards and phone apps have replaced cash for nearly everything—parking meters, restaurant bills, and virtually every other purchase or transaction.

Today, when women are flooded by credit card offers, they can remember Margaret Heckler, who served as the catalyst to provide credit worthiness to American women in their own names. (115)

The First Female Supreme Court Justice

President Reagan made history by nominating Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. He pledged to nominate the first female Supreme Court justice rather than support the Equal Rights Amendment. Kimberly Heckler reveals her mother-in-law’s role in his historic first in these two selections from Chapter 15: Mission Accomplished.

By June 1980, Reagan won the Republican nomination. The convention was to be held in Detroit, Michigan. Margaret was tapped for the Republican National Convention Platform Committee because she was a ranking Republican congresswoman. (157)

Heckler demanded a meeting with Reagan, which was scheduled just before his acceptance speech. Margaret planned to ask him about the ERA, then, knowing his support was unlikely, she’d follow up with a counteroffer: his commitment to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. As Linda explained, it was a “very, very deliberate discussion … she had spent a lot of time researching the fact that there were many women who were judges, and it would not be difficult for him to find someone qualified.”

Margaret believed that having a woman on the Supreme Court would be highly symbolic of a commitment to women’s equality under the law. It would also add a woman’s viewpoint into high court jurisprudence. Her purpose for meeting with Reagan was to test this idea.

As a senior congresswoman, Margaret had some sway in getting a private meeting with Reagan. He saw that she was politically savvy enough to maintain a Republican seat in a state trending Democratic, and that she was keenly aware of women’s voting inclinations.

For Margaret’s forty-five-minute meeting with Reagan, her press secretary sat right outside the door. The ERA was the first issue to come up. Reagan had withdrawn his support for the ERA in the Republican platform and openly expressed his concerns to Margaret:

Reagan: “I’m worried that this conservative approach may lose the women’s vote.”

Margaret: “Many women won’t take you seriously as an advocate for them.”

Reagan: “Now what would you suggest I do?”

Margaret: “Now—you appoint a woman to the Supreme Court.”

As the meeting continued, Margaret implored the Republican nominee, “Mr. Reagan, you must appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. Will you commit to it?”

Regan replied, “I’ll think about it, but it’s a very good idea.”

The advice was bold, but well received. By the end of Margaret’s meeting with Reagan, she had won a concession that he would name a woman to the Supreme Court.

When they were finished, Margaret left the room and confidently told Linda Bilmes, “Mission accomplished!” (160)

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