The Maverick: Patricia Schroeder (Part One)

Welcome to Civics and Coffee. My name is Alycia and I am a self-professed history nerd. Each week, I am going to chat about a topic on U.S history and give you both the highlights and occasionally break down some of the complexities in history; and share stories you may not remember learning in high school. All in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee. 

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Hey everyone, welcome back. And happy women’s history month. 

This week’s episode comes to you thanks to a dear friend of the show, and incredible podcaster in his own right, Jerry Landry from the Presidencies of the United States. A while back, Jerry suggested that I consider diving into the life and legacy of one of the fiercest women to ever serve in Congress, Pat Schroeder. I knew immediately this would be a fascinating topic and I thought that women’s history month was an opportune time to talk about this powerhouse. When I started diving into the various facets of her career, I quickly determined that this would be a two part episode. 

So this week I am starting on the life of Pat Schroeder. Who was she? How did she get to Congress? And how was her experience different than her colleagues?

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

Patricia Nell Scott was born on July 30, 1940 in Portland, Oregon. She was the first child for her parents, father Lee Scott and mother Bernice. Schroeder’s father had several careers during Pat’s childhood, including pilot and aviation insurance salesman, but it was his role as an Army Air Corps reservist that prompted the family to move several times in Schroeder’s youth. Lee’s duty during World War II was to teach recruits how to fly at army airfields, and the Scott family traveled the United States in pursuit of these orders living in places such as Dallas, Texas, Sioux City, Iowa, and Kansas City, Missouri. While her father taught recruits how to fly, her mother worked as a first grade teacher and seeing her mother work from a young age left an impression on Patricia that women working outside the home was not abnormal. 

Growing up, Schroeder described her home as progressive. Her father Lee spoke passionately about politics at the dinner table and Patricia was never told she could not do something just because she was a girl. As someone many considered to be a maverick in her congressional career, Schroeder had to deal with being different early in life as she was born cross eyed and had to wear glasses and an eye patch at just 18 months old. Her appearance, for which she was teased, and the constant moves from city to city, meant that Patricia came to rely on herself. The Scott family owned a small plane and they used it to take vacations, visiting places throughout the United States. Schroeder took to the skies quickly, earning a pilot’s license at 15 years old and using her aviation knowledge to earn money while she attended college. 

After graduating Theodore Roosevelt highschool in 1958, Schroeder enrolled in the University of Minnesota that boasted an almost equal enrollment of male and female students, something seen as progressive given the period. But despite being in a quote unquote progressive environment, Schroeder later shared that it was during her undergraduate career that she encountered blatant sexism for the first - but unfortunately not the last - time. While young women were increasingly attending college in the late fifties and early sixties, there was an overwhelming sense that they’d either meet their future husbands and leave school early to become a wife and mother, or they’d earn a degree and enter into a field deemed appropriate for women - such as teaching - until they could secure a marriage proposal and become a stay at home mother. In an interview with PBS in 2014, Schroeder said quote: “When I was at the University of Minnesota, there were an awful lot who thought you should get your M-R-S degree,” end quote. This future did not interest Schroeder and she explored earning a degree in aerodynamics. When she approached a faculty advisor with her idea, she was dismissed and told to think of something else, since having such a degree would simply be a waste of parent’s money when it inevitably ended up quote “hanging over the changing table,” end quote. 

Schroeder later said school came easy to her and she graduated in 1961 magna cum laude, majoring in history and earning minor degrees in philosophy and political science. And if you’re doing the math, dear listener, yes - she earned her degree in 3 years instead of the standard 4. Uninterested in the ceremony, Schroeder apparently paid a fellow student to walk for her and pick up her diploma, eager to start the next phase of her life. What, exactly, that looked like remained to be determined. Schroeder decided to go to law school where she applied - and was admitted - to Harvard. Out of 554 students in her cohort, just 19 were women - and only 14 made it to graduation day. Being in the minority, Schroeder faced significant criticism from her male colleagues who changed their seating arrangements to avoid sitting next to a quote unquote girl, and reminding Schroeder that she was taking a coveted spot away from deserving men. While trying to find her footing, the Dean of the law school invited Schroeder and her other first year female colleagues to his house for dinner. While at dinner, the Dean made each woman explain in detail why they deserved to be at Harvard. In the Dean’s estimation, the women attending the university were all headed for the same fate: housewives and mothers to young children. Why, the dean demanded, did any of these women deserve to be enrolled in one of the most prestigious law programs in the country?

Despite the naysayers, Schroeder graduated from Harvard in 1964. While studying constitutional law at the impressive university, Schroeder met and married fellow law student, Jim Schroeder in 1962. After graduating, the couple decided to relocate to Denver, Colorado where Patricia’s family owned a second home. And while law firms went to work recruiting her husband, Schroeder had no such luck. The firms that were willing to speak with her indicated they would not risk bringing on a new associate who, in their eyes, would only end up quitting once she got pregnant. This was a time before family or medical leave was available and it was common that women who worked were often forced to quit their jobs because they had no protections to return to their workplace once they had recovered. 

Committed to putting her degree to use, Schroeder eventually landed a job with the federal government, working at the National Labor Relations Board as a field attorney. She eventually became pregnant, giving birth for the first time in 1966. This did require her to resign her position with the federal government, again not because of her lack of ability to do the job upon her recovery, but because there lacked any employee protections for individuals who were absent for long periods due to medical needs. Schroeder kept up on the law by initially taking on pro bono cases for Planned Parenthood eventually serving as their legal counsel. She also joined Colorado’s State Personnel Board part time and taught politics and constitutional law, first at the University of Colorado, then at Regis College. Schroeder would go through two more pregnancies - each of which came with a series of complications that permanently embedded in her the need for women to have bodily autonomy. 

In 1968, Schroeder was again pregnant but began experiencing bleeding around her fourth month. Concerned, she approached her doctor who dismissed her as being high strung. In her last trimester Schroeder went into early labor and discovered that she had been pregnant with twins and that one of the twins had died in utero. The second twin had experienced significant trauma at birth, causing significant brain damage and the infant died shortly after birth. When she became pregnant again in 1970, she experienced excessive bleeding after birth and her doctors warned her that getting pregnant again could lead to her death. This was three years before the Supreme Court ruled that women should have guaranteed access to an abortion in their 7-2 decision in Roe v Wade and just a handful of years after the court ruled that married couples should be granted access to contraceptives in another 7-2 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut. Schroeder later shared quote, “these experiences certainly reinforced my belief that a woman has a right to decide what happens to her own body,” end quote. 

In 1972, Americans remained divided over the war in Vietnam and there was a desire among Democratic activists for new leadership. In Denver, local Democrats were less than impressed by the standard bearer, Clarence Decker, who was the national party’s choice to challenge freshman incumbent James McKevitt. Decker seemed like more of the same as he was a supporter of Vietnam. As the legend goes, Jim Schroeder was attending a local Democratic club meeting when conversation turned to the upcoming race for the house. Everyone in attendance knew the odds were not in their favor and whoever was selected would have quite the head wind since the party had already decided who to support. As a joke, someone asked Jim whether his wife should join the race. Although he laughed it off in the moment, he talked it over with Pat once he got home and the two decided that maybe it wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. 

While her candidacy itself was not a completely whacky idea, it did not mean that her chances were any better than anyone else. The Schroeder’s knew the campaign would be an uphill battle and they believed that Pat had little to zero chance of winning. But anger can be a strong motivator as Schroeder later reflected quote: “I was so angry about the Vietnam War. I was so angry about all the different things that were happening. And I ran because I thought, ‘well, somebody’s got to stand up and something about this,” end quote. Running for Congress as a woman in 1972 was no easy feat. Making matters worse, Schroeder was entering the election late. She declared her candidacy in late April when caucuses were scheduled for just a few weeks later in May. Upon her announcement, the Denver Post’s headline said quote “Woman Attorney to Run for Congress,” end quote. Other papers only referred to her has a housewife; none of them mentioned the candidate by name and the Democratic party all but ignored Shroeder’s bid, leading her to run her campaign mostly from her basement. 

Despite running on the campaign slogan, she wins, we win, there was a sense that since Schroeder was almost certainly guaranteed to lose, she had the freedom to champion otherwise risky policy positions and could try to push the needle to the left. The idea was that Schroeder would act as a bit of a clarion call for career politicians in Washington; she would campaign and raise important issues that needed to be addressed, but that when the final votes were tallied she would not make it across the finish line. In this sense, the risk was low and thus, Schroeder put everything on the table. 

Throughout her campaign Schroeder made sure to champion or otherwise embrace left leaning positions. She ran unapologetically as someone who was opposed to the war in Vietnam, even using political posters depicting Arlington Cemetery with a caption that read quote, “Many of our troops have already been withdrawn from Vietnam,” end quote. She also ran on protecting the environment, and was a strong supporter of the feminist movement. But by some miracle, Schroeder beat the odds, besting her primary opponent Clarence Decker by 4,000 votes. Hoping to avoid past mistakes where disunity led to election defeat, some of Decker’s staff joined Schroeder’s campaign and she gained some support by local labor unions. Despite this, the national Democratic Party still seemed unconvinced and provided only moderate support for their candidate heading into the general election. Going two for two on election surprises, Schroeder was victorious as she eked out a win against Republican James Douglas McKevitt by just under 10,000 votes. Somehow, some way, Schroeder managed to secure an electoral victory. She did it without any party backing or support and relied on small donations, averaging just $7.50 to make history when she became the first woman elected to represent Colorado in Congress. Her election made national news because of the historic number of women who ran and won elections in the 1972 cycle.  

Upon her swearing in ceremony in January, Schroeder would become one of just 16 women to serve in the House of Representatives and zero women serving in the Senate. Schroeder’s win, while historic, did not mean she would have an easy go of it once she got the D.C. Much like her time at Harvard, Schroeder would find that Congress was little more than an old boys club and the boys, so to speak, were not overly enthused with the idea of welcoming a woman to the chamber. So just how would Schroeder respond? Well for that, dear listeners, be sure to tune in next week for the concluding chapter of political powerhouse Patricia Schroeder. My thanks again to Jerry for requesting the topic. Listener requests remain some of my favorite episodes to research and I always love what everyone comes up with. If you ever want me to cover a topic, just let me know. You can find me through most social media channels including BlueSky and Threads, as well through my website at www civics and coffee dot com. 

Thanks friends. I’ll see you next week. 

Thanks for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Civics & Coffee. If you want to hear more small snippets from american history, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and I look forward to our next cup of coffee together. 

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