Gladys Pyle, 1890-1989

Senator Pyle in 1938. Photo credit - Harris & Ewing, photographer @ Library of Congress

The first Republican female senator, the first female senator from South Dakota, the first woman to be elected to the US Senate without previously been appointed to her position, and the first unmarried female senator.

Gladys Pyle was born in Huron, South Dakota. Her parents raised her and her sisters with a highly public service orientation, her father was a South Dakota attorney general, and her mother was active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

Pyle earned her liberal arts degree from Huron College, which her parents were its patrons. After her graduation, she taught in public high schools and served as a principal. At the age of 30, she stopped teaching and worked as a lecturer for the League of Women Voters. Then she decided to practice what she had preached and made a transition to politics.

When Gladys Pyle was 33 years old, she became the first female member of the State House of Representatives, and afterward, she served as Secretary of State of South Dakota, the first woman in this position. During that time, she lost the 1930 gubernatorial elections. In 1938, due to the vacancy caused by the death of South Dakota’s Serving Governor, Pyle was elected to the United States Senate. She was the first woman elected to the U.S Senate without having previously been appointed to her position but served in this position for a term of only two months. After her tenure ended, she returned to her previous interests in the insurance business and farm management. However, she always stayed involved in public service work.

Pyle became a member of the South Dakota Board of Charities and Corrections, an agent for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, and the first woman in the state to serve on a jury. In 1940, Pyle was the first woman to address a national political convention, speaking on behalf of the Republican candidate Harland J. Bushfield.

This post is also available in:

Español

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Please support us so we can publish more herstories about pioneer women.
Donate

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Please support us so we can publish more herstories about pioneer women.
Donate

 

“Citizenship is service.”

“Citizenship is service.”

Fun Facts

  • Because she never officially sworn into the Senate, she had to pay her own travel expenses.
  • Before her death, she recorded her memoirs from her upbringing in the propose to turn her family home into a museum. Today the Pyle House Museum is registered as a national historic place.

Creations By and About Her

This post is also available in: Español

Category: Academy & Education and Politics & Leaders
Tags: Senator

Shop & Support

Donate & Support
 
Our feminist project of wanderlust and equality-aspired community maps the HerStories of worldwide wonder women.
Explore the website for excellent guided tours, travel tips, unique landmarks, fun girlfriend getaways, events, and in-depth articles about gender, equality, space, and (not-told-enough) female legacy.

About the Project

 

National-Daughters-Day
Politics & Leaders

Carol Moseley Braun, 1947

A lawyer, politician, and diplomat. The first female African-American US Senator and the first female Senator from Illinois.

Carol Elizabeth Moseley was born and raised in a segregated neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. While in high school, her parents got divorced, and she moved in with her grandmother. After graduation, she studied Political Science at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Afterward, she studied law at the University of Chicago, earning her Juris Doctor degree at 25. While at law school, she met Michael Braun, and the couple married in 1973. In the same year, Moseley Braun began to work as a prosecutor in the US Attorney’s office in Chicago, dealing primarily with civil cases. After four years, she took time off to be at home with her newborn son till her neighbors recruited her to run for the state legislature. She served for 10 years, promoting health care, gun control, and education reform. In 1988, when Moseley Braun was elected to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, she became the first African-American to serve in an executive position in Cook County. In November 1992, after defeating her Democratic opponent, Moseley Braun ran in the primary election for the US Senate. On her win, she became the first African-American woman to be elected to the US Senate, the first African-American US Senator from the Democratic Party, and the first female Senator from Illinois. In her single term as Senator, she supported social causes, such as minority rights, pro-choice bills, child support bills, and budgets for job training of youth and senior citizens. A year after losing the re-election, she was nominated as the US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. In 2003, Moseley Braun began her campaign for the Democratic Party presidential elections, though She dropped out of the race after reaching third in the DC primary. In 2005, she ran for mayor of Chicago, finishing fourth with only 9% of the votes. Since the early 2000s, Moseley Braun teaches political science in numerous institutes, including DePaul University and Northwestern University. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Catherine-Cortez-Masto-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Catherine Cortez Masto, 1964

A lawyer and Democratic politician served as the 32nd attorney general of Nevada. The first Latina in the US Senate and the first woman to represent Nevada.

Catherine Cortez was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. She studied finance at the University of Nevada, Reno, and then law at the Gonzaga University School of Law. In 1995, she became the chief of staff of the former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, as well as served as an assistant to the United States Attorney General. During that time, she married Paul Masto, a former Special Agent in the US Secret Service. In 1999, Cortez Masto moved to Washington, DC, for a few years to work as a federal prosecutor. In 2006, 42 years old Cortez Masto won the state Attorney General’s elections, serving full two-term after winning the re-election of 2010, the second woman to serve as Nevada Attorney General. In this position, she focused on social issues such as sex trafficking, elder abuse, domestic violence, and the methamphetamine epidemic. As state attorney general, Cortez Masto investigated a nationwide mortgage-fraud, which the settlement of the case brought to the state more than $1.9 billion. In 2016, Cortez Masto ran for a seat at the US Senate. In her campaign, she asserted topics such as immigration reform, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and raising the minimum wage. She won with 47% of the votes, and when she took office, Cortez Masto became the first Latina in the US Senate and the first woman to represent Nevada. While in office, she advocates for gun control, pro-choice, and federal government limitations on greenhouse gas emissions. She is a member of numerous committees, including the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Finance, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. In her efforts to promote women and children, Cortez Masto introduced two bills addressing missing, murdered, and trafficking of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, as well as introduced the Interdiction of Protection of Child Victims of Exploitation and Human Trafficking Act, providing tools for law enforcement officers to recognize and rescue exploited children. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Dianne-Feinstein-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Dianne Feinstein, 1933-2023

The first female mayor of San Francisco and the longest-serving member of the US Senate.

Born Dianne Emiel Goldman in San Francisco’s exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood, she was redirected from a Jewish religious school to a private Catholic high school to learn discipline. She initially wanted to study medicine but ended up graduating Stanford University with a degree in History and Political Science. Feinstein’s political career had many firsts, starting with being the first woman to head the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco. She also had her share of disappointments, as when she lost twice the elections for the position of mayor of San Francisco. Several years after, following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, whom she found shot to death, she replaced Moscone in the office, and later elected to stay in the position. In 1992, together with Barbara Boxer, she became one of California’s first female senators and continued in conceiving achievements when she became the first woman to assume the role of the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, as well as the first woman to chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Today she is the oldest member of the Senate. Her most significant contribution was leading six years review of the CIA’s use of torture. Feinstein is one of the wealthiest senators of the US, with an estimated net worth of $58 million. The reports attribute a large portion of her wealth to her third husband, investment banker Richard C. Blum. Her only daughter, Katherine Feinstein, is a former Superior Court judge. She died on September 29th, 2023, at the age of 90. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Elizabeth-Warren-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Elizabeth Warren, 1949

The first female Senator of Massachusetts and a former Democratic Candidate for 2020 US President.

Elizabeth Ann Herring grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Oklahoma. She excelled in debate and got a scholarship to George Washington University. At 19, she paused her studies to start a family with her high school sweetheart and devoted herself to raising a daughter and a son. Only later in life did she resume her career – got a Doctor of Law degree, started lecturing in Rutgers School of Law, University of Texas Law School, and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Warren became well known as Harvard Law School bankruptcy expert. In her public work, she served as an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and was appointed as a special adviser to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She published several books, including two popular volumes about middle-class economics, co-authored with her daughter. The two made the bold statement that “sending mothers to work has made families more vulnerable to financial disaster than ever before.” In 2012 she ran for Senate and became the first female Senator from Massachusetts. She was re-elected in 2018. In 2019 she declared herself as a candidate for president. The official launch of her campaign was made in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The location was chosen to reference the historic 1912 labor strike led by immigrant women textile workers. In March 2020 (during Women’s History Month), Warren suspended her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, following a disappointing showing in early primary contests. Elizabeth Warren shaped her political agenda around wealth re-distributive policies: criticizing Wall Street after the financial crisis, proposing a wealth tax and free childcare. She is one of the wealthiest presidency candidates with over $2.59 million worth. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
View all

 

*Disclaimer: Please be aware that the information on this page is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. Learn more here.

Skip to content