On January 12, 1932, Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman ever elected to the
United States Senate after winning a special election to fill the remaining months of her husband's term.
Arkansans elected Hattie Caraway to the Senate two more times, and she served in the U.S. Senate until January, 1945.
While in the Senate, Hattie Caraway in 1933 became the first woman to chair a Senate Committee and in 1943 became the first woman to take up the gavel on the Senate floor as the Senate's presiding officer.
I feel a special bond with Hattie Caraway because I followed in her footsteps to become the second woman to serve Arkansas in the U.S. Senate in 1998. In fact, during my campaign I carried around with me a quote Hattie Caraway made during her own campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1932: "If I can hold on to my sense of humor and a modicum of dignity, I shall have a wonderful time running for office whether I get there or not."
After Hattie Caraway's path-breaking career concluded in 1945 when then-Representative William Fulbright beat her in the primary, her Senate colleagues honored her for her service with a standing ovation on the Senate floor. This was quite an accomplishment considering that women had just won the right to vote only 25 years earlier.
Hattie Caraway made history again recently by becoming the first Arkansan to ever appear on a stamp. On February 21, 2001 in Little Rock, I helped unveil the 76-cent Hattie Caraway definitive stamp, which is the third in the "Distinguished Americans" series after Joseph W. Stilwell and Claude Pepper.
There is no doubt that Hattie Caraway's service in the Senate paved the way for women seeking elective office. 33 women have followed Hattie Caraway to the U.S. Senate, and today, a record high of 14 women are serving in the Senate all at the same time. Combined with the 70 women in the U.S. House of Representatives, a record total of 84 women serve in the U.S. Congress today.
We've come a long way since the Suffragist Movement at the turn of the century, and we have women like Hattie Caraway of Arkansas to thank. As a seventh-generation Arkansan, I am proud to represent my state in the U.S. Senate, and I am especially honored to be the first woman to serve Arkansas in the U.S.Senate since Hattie Caraway.