The pioneer defender of family rights Pat Schroeder passed away on Monday night at the age of 82 in Florida. Andrea Camp, Schroeder’s former press secretary, said Schroeder suffered a stroke and died in hospital.
Schroeder was a former Republican who relentlessly fought for women’s rights till she became an icon for the feminist movement.
She was elected to Congress in Colorado in 1972, and also scored 11 easy re-elections from her district in Denver, however, she never appointed to head a committee.
The former republican said she was not willing to join the good old boys club in order to score political points. Among the major successes of the congresswoman is signing a family-leave bill in 1993.
This bill granted women job protection in cases of providing care for a parent, a sick child, or a new born. Schroeder was born in Oregon on July 30, 1940, she was a pilot who later joined Harvard Law School and paid its tuition from her own flying service.
After leaving Congress, she worked as a university professor at Princeton but remained politically active. Schroeder participated in campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Republican Nita Lowey, who took over from Schroeder as Democratic chair of the bipartisan congressional caucus on women’s issues, said “Pat Schroeder blazed the trail. Every woman in this house is walking in her footsteps.”
In 1998, Schroeder published a book titled 24 Years of Housework … and the Place is Still a Mess. My Life in Politics. The book highlighted the former republican’s disappointment with the pace the change in federal institutions is happening and the prevailing male dominance.
