ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM Electoral Politics as an Extension of Activism in the 1970s: A Case Study of Bella Abzug and
Shirley Chisholm as Activist Women in Electoral, Party Politics
By: Erin Randall, American University
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Advisor: Dr. Eileen Findlay, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with University Honors
Fall 2013
1 ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………4
Quotes……………………………………………………………………………………………5
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………6
Statement of the Problem…………………………………………………………………………7
Review of the Literature………………………………………………………………………….9
Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………..15
Background on Abzug and Chisholm……………………………………………………………17
Results and Analysis……………………………………………………………………………..20
Gender and Sexism………………………………………………………………………21
Overcoming sexism……………………………………………………………...21
Women as different from men…………………………………………………...22
Women: Representation and Political Organizing……………………………………….24
The Women’s Movement and Race……………………………………………………...26
Feminism, Humanism and ‘Of the People’………………………………………………29
Lack of Tension Between Activism and Electoral Politics……………………………...32
Talking vs. action………………………………………………………………...32
Outside and inside simultaneously……………………………………………….33
Necessity of working within the system…………………………………………34
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….35
References………………………………………………………………………………………..38
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..42
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 3 ABSTRACT
This study examines primary texts of Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug, two progressive
women politicians in the 1970s, in order to discover how these two women conceived of their
grassroots activism in relation to electoral, party politics. Through an historiographical analysis
of books, interviews, and speeches, the study finds that Chisholm and Abzug felt no tension
between their grassroots activism and their positions as elected officials; in fact, it seems that
Chisholm and Abzug viewed their entrances into electoral politics as extensions of their feminist
and anti-racist activism. The sociopolitical context of the 1970s, when the United States readily
felt the effects of the civil rights movement and the women’s movement, likely contributed to
this lack of tension between activism and electoral politics. In today’s political climate of
increased party polarization, general acceptance of women and people of color in electoral
politics, and the claim of a post-feminist and post-racial society, it is unclear that progressive
women politicians today will be able to balance activism and party politics in the same way.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I’d like to thank my capstone advisor, Dr. Eileen Findlay, for her support and feedback.
Without Dr. Findlay, I would have been stuck coding thousands of articles for this capstone—
thank you for pointing me to qualitative analysis instead!
I’d also like to thank Dr. Mary Ellen Curtin for her enthusiasm for my project and for helping me
find literature on the topic. Her expertise on race and U.S. politics is truly inspiring.
Thank you to my Fall 2013 WGSS Capstone Class for all of your support and encouragement:
Meredith Allen, Lisa Buchter, Dakota David, Lauren Ebersole, Michelle Getlan, Emily
McGranachan, Kylie Musolf, Hannah Sydnor-Greenberg, and Abby Weingarten.
Thank you to my fellow EMILY’s List interns, especially Anna Blue, Anna Cumming, Nick
Desideri, Eliza Dryer, Evan Goldstein, Anna Korman, Cassie Maneen, and Katie Naymon—I
look forward to working in progressive politics with all of you someday soon.
Thank you to Jessica Byrd for all of your support and advice. You inspire me every day.
And thank you to my roommate, Nancy Cohen, for all of your encouragement throughout this
process.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 5 “No other congressman has the commitment to activism that I have.
None is as prepared as I am to really delve and pierce and pressure the
process and shake it inside out, as I am.”1
—Bella Abzug, 1972
“I feel that in order to bring about change in the society, you have got to
get in on the inside and begin to try to change it because power concedes
nothing.”2
—Shirley Chisholm, 1974
1
2
(Abzug 1972:298)
(Chisholm and Dell 1974:9)
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 6 Electoral Politics as an Extension of Activism in the 1970s: A Case Study of Bella Abzug and
Shirley Chisholm as Activist Women in Electoral, Party Politics
Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug, two accomplished American politicians, represented
sections of Brooklyn and the Bronx, respectively, in the United States House of Representatives
in the 1970s. Together, they introduced child care legislation (Abzug 1972) and founded the
National Women’s Political Caucus (Abzug 1984). Chisholm, a black teacher from Brooklyn
who made her way through New York City’s political clubs, and Abzug, a Jewish lawyer from
the Bronx who rose to fame through the peace movement, worked together quite often, although
they did not always agree on the best way to affect change. When Chisholm announced her
presidential bid in 1972, Abzug spoke at the campaign announcement but never declared her
support for Chisholm’s candidacy (Chisholm 1973). Both women discuss this in their texts, with
unmistakably different perspectives on Chisholm’s reasons for running and Abzug’s reasons for
withholding her endorsement (Abzug 1972; Chisholm 1973).
In spite of their differences, Chisholm and Abzug both decided to run for elective office
in the 1970s, breaking barriers that were arguably more difficult to overcome at the time than
today. After working to elect progressive men for many years, Chisholm and Abzug decided that
they were not going to step aside, as convention dictated, so that underwhelming men candidates
could run. Chisholm describes her decision to fight against sexist norms, writing, “This had to
change someday, and I was resolved that it was going to start changing then. I was the bestqualified nominee, and I was not going to be denied because of my sex” (1970:69). Abzug has
similar feelings, and echoes Chisholm’s qualification argument, writing:
Then and there, I decided to run for Congress. It was like a light switch being turned on
in my brain, that “click” which my friends at Ms. Magazine call the moment of
recognition of a feminist truth. I had been working hard all those years to elect men who
weren’t any more qualified or able than I, and in some cases they were less so. I realized
that if I had strong beliefs and ideals about how our country should be run, I could best
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 7 work for them right up front, out in the open, in my own way. The gender gap in political
office was too wide and deep to be left unchallenged. (1984:161)
Clearly, both women decided to run due to a perception that they were more qualified than most
of the men being tapped by the political machines. In running for political office, Chisholm and
Abzug attempted to overcome deeply entrenched sexism, and for Chisholm, racism. Shirley
Chisholm and Bella Abzug fought for progressive change as elected officials and as activists,
and, in this study, I seek to show how they talk about these experiences in their own writings and
speeches.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem for investigation is: How do Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug, as women
politicians, talk about and conceive of themselves in relation to feminism and racial justice?
Through examination of books and articles written by Chisholm and Abzug and interviews and
speeches given by Chisholm and Abzug, I seek to discover how these two women talk about
their own identities and their own conceptions of sexism and racism in politics and in society.
Indeed, Chisholm and Abzug held national office in the 1970s, as members of the U.S.
House of Representatives. Chisholm served in the New York State legislature before ascending
to the national stage, and Abzug served as a prominent civil rights lawyer. Chisholm became the
first black woman to earn a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the late 1960s, and
Abzug followed her in the early 1970s. This time period, after the passage of the Civil Rights
Act in the mid-1960s, allowed black men, and especially black women, to exercise their right to
vote and to emerge as potential candidates in electoral politics (Prestage 1991). The women’s
movement was also very active at the time, so women were making important gains in education
and bodily autonomy as well. The time became ripe for Abzug, a Jewish woman, and Chisholm,
a black woman, to become substantial forces in electoral politics.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 8 It seems that a discussion of how these two politicians conceive of themselves must
include both gender and race. Ignoring one would only provide a slice of the picture that
Chisholm and Abzug painted of themselves. Certainly, other issues, such as poverty, education,
and peace, were also salient at the time and cannot be forgotten in an analysis. Thus, I will
acknowledge them; however, I ultimately aim to discover how Chisholm and Abzug talk about
themselves in terms of gender and race.
In doing so, I seek to find if Chisholm and Abzug perceive a tension between themselves
as activists who fight for social change and as politicians who work within the system for
economic and political change. How do they reconcile these two seemingly (though not
necessarily) contradictory aspects of themselves? If there is a tension, how does it manifest itself
in writings and speeches by Chisholm and Abzug? If the tension does not exist, how does this
manifest, and what are the implications of this for women politicians today?
In looking at these questions, I hope that women politicians today will be able to learn
from these former women politicians. More than forty years have passed since Chisholm and
Abzug held office, and certainly, society has become less tolerant of sexism and racism in
electoral politics. Though the context of electoral politics for women has changed since the
1960s and 1970s, white women and women of color are still underrepresented in Congress and in
the Senate, making the work and lives of Chisholm and Abzug still relevant. In today’s political
world, I perceive a tension between activism and electoral politics that is all too real for nonracist, feminist politicians. Thus, finding how Chisholm and Abzug conceived of their activist
and electoral political roles in the 1960s and 1970s can teach us important lessons today,
allowing women in electoral politics to make even more gains. Additionally, as I am considering
running for office one day myself, this research may help clarify this underlying tension I feel
between my feminism and my interest in electoral, party politics.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 9 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Though I seek to examine how Chisholm and Abzug conceive of themselves, other
scholars have documented the lives of Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug and the political roles
they played during their time in office. Arguably, women politicians today reap the results of the
legacies of Chisholm and Abzug. The current body of literature on the subjects of women in
politics, feminism, race, Abzug, and Chisholm is varied. In this review of the literature, I
examine scholarship on women and politics, literature situating the context of the 1960s and
1970s, literature on the lives of Abzug and Chisholm, and literature on the Civil Rights
Movement and black women in politics.
Women and Elective Office (1998) and Women and American Politics: New Questions,
New Directions (2003) discuss the benefits of Abzug and Chisholm’s legacies indirectly. These
two collections of articles offer a look at how women and politics interacted in the late 1980s and
1990s—ten to twenty years after Chisholm and Abzug held political office. Though not directly
related to my own study, these articles discuss, to a certain extent, the effects that Abzug and
Chisholm had on changing the face of women in politics in the United States. With this project, I
hope to be able to use the experiences of Chisholm and Abzug to inform possibilities for women
today, also examining the lasting effects of their legacies.
A Portrait of Marginality: The Political Behavior of the American Woman (1977) is also
a collection of political science-driven studies that discuss women and politics; however, this
collection discusses women and politics in a time period more relevant to my own study: the
1960s and 1970s. This collection of articles is important because it offers a context for my own
examination of Chisholm and Abzug during this time period. The significance of this collection
of studies also lies in the fact that it shows, as its title suggests, the marginality of women in U.S.
politics during the time that Chisholm and Abzug were in office.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 10 Myra Marx Feree (1974), in “A Woman for President? Changing Responses: 19581972,” sets up a deeper context as she explores race and gender preferences among voters from
the late 1950s until the early 1970s by analyzing Gallup polls from these years. Feree finds that
in 1958, people found it more difficult to vote for a black person than for a woman, and in 1972,
people found it more difficult to vote for a woman than for a black person (black women were
not part of the equation at this time). (1974:399). Though this change occurred, Feree claims that
women were making gains in society through their changing attitudes and through their activism
(1974:399), and perhaps the very real threat of the feminist movement contributed to this shift in
the polls. Overall, though, Feree (1974) concedes that although her findings indicate that it was
easier for people to vote for a black person than a woman in 1972, voting for women was much
easier in absolute terms than it had been earlier, and much more predictable and systematic.
Indeed, Feree (1974) ultimately discovers that people found it more difficult to vote for a
woman than for a black person in 1972, attributing this to the gains for black Americans during
the Civil Rights Movement. In “In Quest of African American Political Woman,” Jewel Prestage
(1991:97) contends that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 empowered black people,
especially black women, to vote and to become more involved in the electoral political process.
Therefore, it could be argued that the late 1960s and early 1970s were decades when the United
States was ripe for electing women, both black and white, to political office. Indeed, both Abzug
and Chisholm faced sexism during their campaigns, and Chisholm certainly faced racism (Feree
1974). These issues have not disappeared even in politics today; however, it seems that due to
changing attitudes about race and gender fostered by the feminist and civil rights movements,
Chisholm and Abzug were able to wage successful electoral campaigns.
The current literature describing and reflecting on the life and accomplishments of Bella
Abzug seems to be mostly commemorative, praising her feminist activism and political victories,
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 11 particularly two works published right after her death (Howe 1998; Rodgers 1998). Additionally,
Wendy Atkins-Sayre (2005) discusses Abzug’s famous introduction of legislation while in
Congress that would have eliminated the discriminatory “Mrs.” and “Miss” on government
documents, instead changing it to a non-discriminatory “Ms.” Though these articles
acknowledge Abzug’s feminism, they do not take on the possible tensions between Abzug’s
feminism and electoral politics or Abzug’s own conceptions of her feminism.
Leandra Zarnow (2010) goes beyond commemoration of Abzug in her dissertation, “‘A
Very Simple Sense of Justice’: Bella Abzug, Jewish Radicalism, and the Legal Left from the
Popular Front to the Cold War.” In this study, Zarnow examines Abzug’s spiritual, intellectual,
and political development before she moved into a position of national prominence in the peace
and feminist movements and in Congress. Zarnow (2010) analyzes the effects of Zionism and
Abzug’s Jewish faith on her politics and feminism. Zarnow (2010) also examines Abzug’s
development in Left feminism, situating her time at Hunter College surrounded by Leftist
ideology as critical to her actions as an elected official—seeking justice and equality for all
people. My own study does not directly look at Abzug’s faith as a catalyst for her activism;
however, I do examine Abzug’s own writings and speeches to see if and how Abzug conceives
of her Jewish faith in relation to her politics and how her Leftist background affects her
conceptions of herself and her feminism as an elected official.
In an article likely drawn from her dissertation research, Zarnow (2008) also investigates
Abzug’s experience in the Civil Rights Movement. In “Braving Jim Crow to Save Willie
McGee: Bella Abzug, the Legal Left, and Civil Rights Innovation, 1948–1951,” Zarnow (2008)
describes and analyzes Abzug’s importance as a lawyer to the civil rights movement and racial
justice before her election to Congress. This important article speaks to Abzug’s commitment to
racial equality and how it informed her feminism; however, it does not address how Abzug may
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 12 have negotiated these issues while in office. My research begins to fill this void because I
analyze Abzug’s own texts in order to synthesize her negotiation of feminist and anti-racist
activism as a politician.
Though Abzug held feminist and anti-racist views, Shirley Chisholm, as a black woman
in politics, had to combat sexism and racism simultaneously as she ran for political office
(Brown 2008; McLain et al 2008; Prestage 1991; Gallagher 2007). This put her in a unique
position, as she was the first black woman elected to Congress and the first black woman to
seriously contend for her party’s presidential nomination (Brown 2008). In “Waging ‘The Good
Fight’: The Political Career of Shirley Chisholm,” Julie Gallagher (2007) examines the tension
between race and gender which haunted Chisholm’s presidential campaign, revealing the
challenges of coalition building. McLain et al (2008), in “Gender and Black Presidential Politics:
From Chisholm to Moseley Braun,” also acknowledge this tension between race and gender
among Chisholm’s supporters. Clearly, it is important to address this issue in any analysis of
Chisholm’s life and politics, and I do so in my own research.
Several studies cite the importance of the Civil Rights Movement to black women in
electoral politics in the late 1960s and 1970s. In “Black Women in Congress during the PostCivil Rights Movement Era,” Sharon Wright (1999) analyzes the experiences of black women in
Congress from the 1960s-1990s and the ways they furthered the activism of the civil rights
movement. Wright (1999) claims that black women have not experienced a double disadvantage
due to race and gender when seeking and holding office, although she concedes that they have
experienced prejudices. Wright (1999) uses Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 presidential bid to show
examples of prejudices that black women face in electoral politics, even while maintaining her
assertion that black women are not doubly disadvantaged.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 13 In “The Civil Rights-Black Power Legacy: Black Women Elected Officials at the Local,
State, and National Levels,” Linda Faye-Williams (2001) shows that black women’s increasing
presence as elected officials is a legacy of the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement. FayeWilliams asserts that black women can overcome the double disadvantage of race and gender
with “superior levels of education and background preparation while taking advantage of the
policies instituted as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the majority-minority
redistricting included in the Voting Rights Act” (2001:326). It seems that Wright (1999) and
Faye-Williams (2001) disagree about the presence of the “double disadvantage” of race and
gender for black women seeking elective office, though both admit that black women experience
prejudices in doing so. Clearly, Chisholm had to contend with both of these forces as she sought
elective office, and my goal is to discover how she negotiated these two aspects of society as a
politician.
Julie Gallagher (2012) also writes about black women and politics, focusing on black
women and New York City politics from the 1910s to 1970s. In Black Women and Politics in
New York City, Gallagher (2012) devotes an entire chapter to Shirley Chisholm’s political life
and partly attributes Chisholm’s electoral success to her early experiences in New York City’s
political clubs. Gallagher (2012) argues that New York City, as the central hub of progressive
politics in the U.S. and because of its demographic shifts in the early 1900s, allowed black
women to rise in local politics through the 1960s and 1970s. Gallagher looks at Chisholm’s
electoral political experiences through a new lens—the lens of New York City politics. It is
important to take this into account in my own study—does Chisholm consider her time in New
York City’s political clubs influential, and if so, what does this mean for how she conceives of
herself as a politician? Evidently, Chisholm’s experiences in New York City’s political clubs
will be a significant aspect to analyze in my own project.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 14 In “In Quest of African American Political Woman,” Jules Prestage (1991) also
acknowledges Chisholm’s identities and social location as both black and a woman. She traces
black women’s nontraditional politics due to the access to traditional political paths that they
have systemically been denied (Prestage 1991). She then points to black women’s gains and
activism once winning their political rights (Prestage 1991). Ultimately, Prestage analyzes
Chisholm’s importance to the black women’s movement by looking at Chisholm through the
lens of her identity as a black woman. In my project, I will certainly take into account
Chisholm’s identity as a black woman, using it to inform my analysis of how Chisholm
negotiated her feminist and anti-racist activism with her position as an elected political official.
Brown (2008) goes a step further and attempts to analyze Chisholm’s political career not
only through race and gender, but also through identification as a member of an immigrant
community. (Chisholm’s mother and father were both immigrants, and Chisholm spent several
years of her youth living on her grandmother’s farm in Barbados (Brownmiller 1970)). Brown
writes:
Chisholm articulated her translocal identity by strategically emphasizing her femaleness
among women supporters, her blackness before African-American audiences, and her
ability to transcend these historically constructed categories and appeal to the humanity
of all Americans in the company of a culturally diverse crowd. (2008:1015).
Taking into account Chisholm’s identity as a member of an immigrant community was a new
way to go about analyzing her role in politics and added a great deal more to the research. As I
examine how Chisholm conceived of herself in relation to feminism, anti-racist activism, and
electoral politics, I must acknowledge the importance of Chisholm’s multiple identities, as does
Brown.
Gallagher (2007) looks at Chisholm’s life and political career over time: how it evolved
and with whom she partnered to make change. Gallagher’s (2007) account surveys the main
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 15 issues on which Chisholm worked: eradicating sexism, racism, and poverty, providing low-cost
daycare services to working mothers, and improving public education. Gallagher (2007)
concludes that Chisholm knew that she was in politics for something larger than herself—to
make it easier for women and people of color to enter politics and improve their lives. Indeed,
this concern seems to be a common thread between Chisholm and Abzug. While Gallagher
traces Chisholm’s life and accomplishments to inform her analysis, I examine Chisholm’s own
texts to see how she conceives of herself in terms of activism and electoral politics.
Though my research will touch on many of the issues covered in this review of the
literature, it is original in that it is a qualitative analysis of texts written by and spoken by
Chisholm and Abzug themselves. Certainly, the previous literature has drawn on these texts;
however, I examine the texts with a new lens. As stated before, I look to understand how these
two women politicians portray, conceive of, and think about themselves in terms of gender and
race, feminism and racism. Ultimately, I hope that this project, by looking at these two feminist,
anti-racist activists and elected political officials, will illuminate the struggles, tensions, and
resolutions, or lack thereof, between grassroots activism and politics in the 1960s and 1970s.
METHODOLOGY
As I suggested above, I use primary texts from Chisholm and Abzug to complete this
historiographical research using qualitative textual analysis. I examine books and articles written
by these two women, along with interviews and speeches given by them. I use two books by
Chisholm and two books by Abzug, and I also read and analyze their articles, interviews, and
speeches. I examine the following texts:
Abzug
“Women in Elective Office” (1970)
“Fighting Hard.” (1971)
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 16 Bella! Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington (1972)
“Women and Politics: The Struggle for Representation” (1972)
“Bella’s Eye View of Her Party’s Future” (1974)
“Gift we can give ourselves” (1975)
Gender Gap (1984)
Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe
McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers,
Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way (2007)
Chisholm
“Equal Rights for Women” (1969)
Unbought & Unbossed (1970)
“Race, Revolution and Women” (1971)
“The Politics of Coalition” (1972)
The Good Fight. (1973)
“The Twin Jeopardies of Race and Sex” (1974)
“Sister Shirley Says Interview” (1974)
“Vote for the Individual, Not the Political Party” (1978)
“Racism and Anti-Feminism” (1983)
Although I do not cite each of these sources in the final version of this paper, each source
informs my analysis on the lives of Chisholm and Abzug; for that reason, I list them all here. As
I read each source, I took careful notes on each regarding the following aspects:
1. Similarities and differences between the experiences of Chisholm and Abzug as women
politicians
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 17 2. Identification or non-identification with the term “feminist” and the use of the word
“feminism”
3. Ideas about race, racial inequality, and racial justice
4. Any tensions between race and gender
5. Tension or lack thereof between activism and politics
After taking notes on each of these aspects, and other interesting ideas I came across as I read, I
analyze the ways that Chisholm and Abzug conceive of themselves using the patterns,
distinctions, and information I found.
BACKGROUND ON ABZUG AND CHISHOLM
Bella Abzug
Bella Savitzky was born in the Bronx in 1920, the year women secured the right to vote
in the United States (Levine and Thom 2007). Abzug’s parents were Russian Jewish immigrants;
she grew up with strong Jewish faith, joining leftist Zionist groups in her preteen years (Levine
and Thom 2007). Abzug attended Walton High School in the Bronx and graduated in 1938
(Levine and Thom 2007). She attended Hunter College, where she was elected president of
student government in 1941 (Levine and Thom 2007). After graduation in 1942, with a degree in
political science, Abzug enrolled at Columbia University Law School—Harvard had turned
down her application, as it did not accept women at that time (Levine and Thom 2007). Abzug
became editor of Law Review at Columbia, gaining a reputation as tough and dedicated (Levine
and Thom 2007). Bella Savitzky graduated in 1945, one year after marrying Martin Abzug. After
graduation, Abzug began practicing law, specializing in labor law and civil rights law. At this
time, Abzug began to wear the large hats that would add so much personality to her political
persona (Jewish Virtual Library 1997).
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 18 Abzug practiced law for many years, standing up against McCarthyism and racism. In
1950, Abzug defended Willie McGee, a black man in the South accused of raping a white
woman, even though the two were in a consensual relationship (Levine and Thom 2007). Abzug
was unable to win the case and McGee was executed, but she proved her dedication to justice
and her unwillingness to give up. In 1949, in the midst of Abzug’s law career, her first daughter,
Eve, was born, and her second daughter, Liz, was born in 1952 (Levine and Thom 2007). Abzug
continued to practice law, while also organizing Women Strike for Peace, a group that
campaigned for a nuclear test ban (Levine and Thom 2007). In 1967 and 1968, Women Strike for
Peace launched protests at the Pentagon, calling for an immediate end to the Vietnam War
(Levine and Thom 2007).
In 1970, at age 50, Abzug ran for Congress—and won—on a feminist and peace platform
in New York’s 19th Congressional District (Levine and Thom 2007). She, along with Shirley
Chisholm and others, founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971 (Levine and
Thom 2007). While in Congress, Abzug fought for the rights of working women and families, as
well as minorities, earning a reputation as a go-getter and a fighter. After leaving Congress,
Abzug organized the National Women’s Conference held in Houston in 1977, and in 1978,
President Carter appointed her co-chair of the National Advisory Committee for Women (Levine
and Thom 2007). President Carter abruptly fired her in 1980 in what became a national
controversy over her public disagreement with the President’s economic policies (Levine and
Thom 2007).
Abzug continued fighting for the rights of women, founding the Women’s Environment
and Development Organization in 1990 (Levine and Thom 2007). The group worked with the
UN on development and environmental issues affecting women internationally (Levine and
Thom 2007). Abzug gave her last public speech at the UN in early March of 1998 (Levine and
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 19 Thom 2007). She died on March 31, 1998, leaving behind an incredible legacy of justice and
peace for all (Levine and Thom 2007).
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York (Chisholm 1970). When
Chisholm was three years old, she and her two younger sisters went to live on their maternal
grandmother’s farm in Barbados so that their parents could work to save money (Chisholm
1970). Chisholm’s mother retrieved her children in 1934 and brought them back to Brooklyn
(Chisholm 1970). Chisholm attended Girls’ High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighborhood of Brooklyn and graduated in 1942 (Chisholm 1970). She turned down
scholarships from Vassar College and Oberlin College and attended Brooklyn College, where
she studied sociology and Spanish, with the intention of becoming a teacher (Chisholm 1970).
Chisholm first became interested in politics in college, and after graduation, she became
involved in Brooklyn’s Democratic political clubs, simultaneously holding jobs in early
childhood education and teaching (Chisholm 1970).
Shirley Anita St. Hill met Conrad Chisholm in college, and they married in 1949
(Chisholm 1970). After doing the core work of politics for many years, campaigning and
fundraising, Chisholm decided she was ready to run for office herself, in spite of objections from
some of the black men in the political clubs (Chisholm 1970). She ran for a New York State
House seat in 1964 and won (Chisholm 1970). After serving in the New York State legislature
for several terms, Chisholm decided to run for U.S. Congress, though she received even more
objections, this time from black men and from the white establishment (Chisholm 1970). After a
hard-fought campaign, Chisholm became the Congresswoman for New York’s 12th District in
1968 (Chisholm 1970). She was the first black woman to serve in Congress. While in Congress,
Chisholm founded the National Women’s Political Caucus with Bella Abzug and other
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 20 prominent women, served as the National Abortion Rights Action League’s honorary president
and spokeswoman, and helped found the National Political Congress of Black Women (Mungen
2008).
In 1972, Chisholm decided to run for President of the United States. Chisholm writes of
the decision to run:
I ran because someone had to do it first. In this country everybody is supposed to be able
to run for President, but that’s never really been true. I ran because most people think the
country is not ready for a black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate. Someday…
[ellipsis in original] (1973:3)
Chisholm was the first black woman to run for the presidency, and although she lost the
nomination, she earned 151 delegate votes at the Democratic Convention (National Women’s
History Museum 2013). Arguably, her Presidential bid paved the way for President Barack
Obama’s historic 2008 presidential campaign. In 1977, Shirley Chisholm and Conrad Chisholm
divorced, and Shirley Chisholm remarried in 1978 (Mungen 2008). Chisholm served in Congress
until she retired in 1982, and though she mostly stayed out of the political arena after her
retirement, she served as an advisor for the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns in
1984 and 1988 (Mungen 2008). Chisholm died in Florida in 2005, leaving behind a legacy of
public service and inspiration (Mungen 2008).
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
After reading books, speeches, and articles by Chisholm and Abzug, I sorted my analysis
into five key topic areas that arose as I analyzed my findings. These five topic areas are: gender
and sexism; women doing political organizing to gain representation; racial tensions within the
women’s movement; feminism, humanism and being ‘of the people;’ and lack of tension
between activism and electoral politics. In this section, I elaborate on my findings, structuring
my analysis around these five themes.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 21 Gender and Sexism
As women in electoral politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chisholm and Abzug
faced severe sexism. Both women recount stories of such gender discrimination in their
writings. For example, Abzug discusses her attempt to make an appointment to swim in the
Capitol pool one afternoon, merely to be informed that women can only use the pool in the
mornings (1972:261). Unfortunately, such descriptions of such discrimination are prevalent
throughout the texts I examined.
Chisholm (1970:20) also experienced sexism, consistently claiming that she experienced
more discrimination because of her sex than because of her race. She writes, when recounting
her first few days in Congress, “Men kept asking, ‘What does your husband think about all
this?’ They acted as if they were joking, but they meant to imply that, after all, ‘a woman’s
place…’[ellipsis in original]” (Chisholm 1970:95-96). Clearly, Chisholm and Abzug faced
sexism as elected officials, and both women sought to overcome it.
Overcoming sexism
Though Chisholm and Abzug face sexism in electoral politics, they also find ways to
fight and overcome it. Abzug is quite proud of her successful congressional campaigns, writing,
“As far as I can tell, I was, with the possible exception of Jeannette Rankin, the first female
candidate to win an election to Congress in a campaign that stressed women’s equality issues”
(1984:162). Abzug won an election in New York City in 1970 with women’s equality issues at
the forefront of her campaign. That she can wage such a successful campaign at this time on
women’s equality issues suggests that the tides are shifting toward a more inclusive and equal
world for women in electoral politics.
Indeed, Chisholm’s experiences support this assertion. While reflecting on her first
congressional campaign’s organization of women voters, Chisholm recounts:
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 22 It was not my original strategy to organize woman power to elect me; it was forced upon
me by the time, place, and circumstances. I never meant and never mean to start a war
between women and men. It is true that women are second-class citizens … And when
someone tries to use my sex against me, I delight in being able to turn the tables on him,
as I did in my congressional campaign. (1970:92)
Chisholm’s campaign manager, Mac Holder, had studied voter registrations and found that there
were 2.5 women for every 1 man registered to vote in Chisholm’s (mostly black) district,
“something not found in white communities” (Chisholm 1970:91). Thus, in order to win,
Chisholm and her campaign focus their attention on attracting black women voters, many of
whom head their households, organize within the community, and register to vote in greater
numbers than black men (Chisholm 1970:91). Here, Chisholm fights against sexism by
channeling the support of women in her community.
Evidently, Abzug and Chisholm funnel women to their campaigns, Abzug by
highlighting her women’s equality platform and Chisholm by engaging the women voters in her
district. Both Abzug and Chisholm use this rhetoric in their writings, suggesting that they want
people to remember this aspect of their campaigns. Additionally, as the women’s movement
gains momentum in the late 1960s and 1970s, Abzug and Chisholm benefit from its power and
ability to raise awareness of women’s issues. Though their emphasis on women is not the sole
reason for their successful campaigns, it is fair to say that Chisholm and Abzug benefit from the
timing of their elections in the midst of the women’s movement. They also shape their narratives
to reflect their campaigns’ engagement of women voters, highlighting the salience of women’s
equality at the time.
Women as different from men
Along with using the equality rhetoric of the women’s movement, Chisholm and Abzug
emphasize women’s difference from men in terms of leadership. Abzug takes an essentialist
stance, writing, “In a time of great anxiety, women have become the moral leaders of our nation,
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 23 pointing an alternative direction in which we should go to assure the peace and security of our
nation” (1984:6). Chisholm, conversely, claims that women make better leaders than men due to
the adversity they face. She writes:
I believe that women have a special contribution to make to help bring order out of chaos
because they have special qualities of leadership which are greatly needed today. These
qualities are the patience, tolerance, and perseverance which have developed in many
women because of their suppression. (Chisholm 1983:6)
Indeed, Chisholm and Abzug agree that women make better leaders than men; however,
Chisholm attributes this to the discrimination they must consistently overcome, while Abzug
attributes it to women’s inherent moral high-ground. This is quite interesting and may highlight
one of the lasting tensions in feminism: essentialism or constructivism.3
This difference may also be a result of the social location of each woman. Abzug is a
white, upper-middle class feminist, and Chisholm is a black, working class teacher who must
balance race and gender4 throughout her political life. Because of this, Chisholm may find an
essentialist argument too dangerously close to racist ideologies that once kept black men and
women enslaved. However, using this argument, it would also seem that Abzug, the daughter of
Russian Jews, would be unwilling to buy into an essentialist argument. But from here, it is
important to determine Abzug’s goal in writing Gender Gap, from which I pull the essentialist
quote above. Abzug likely wrote Gender Gap to encourage more women to run for office and to
persuade people that the women’s vote would continue to emerge as a leading force in elections.
Thus, Abzug may use an essentialist argument for women’s leadership in her book in order to
convince more women that 1) they should run for political office, and 2) they should support
women candidates. Telling readers that women inherently make better leaders than men may
3
In her essay, “Feminism, essentialism, and historical context,” Rosaria Champagne examines this lasting tension and claims,
“Essentialism has become a weapon and a symbol of intellectual warfare within feminism” (1995:96). 4
See The Women’s Movement and Race
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 24 help convince women that they should run for office themselves or support other women who
choose to do so. Therefore, Abzug may use this essentialist argument for political expediency—
trying to get more women in elective office.
Women: Representation and Political Organizing
Both Chisholm and Abzug argue that as a result of sexism, the U.S. Congress in the
1960s and 1970s does not represent women, women’s interests, or the interests of most voters,
descriptively or substantively5. Chisholm writes, “Our representative democracy is not working
because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I
believe the chief reason is that it is ruled by a small group of old men” (1970:119). Here,
Chisholm contends that Congress does not represent the interests of the people because a group
of old men holds the power. Abzug agrees that Congress does not represent the interests of
women and other groups and hypotheses what an inclusive Congress would look like; she writes:
Suppose for example, that instead of just eleven women in the House and Senate, we had
several hundred—and I am not talking about just middle class professional women, but
about representatives of America’s 30 million working women, women from the garment
factories of midtown Manhattan, the auto plants of Detroit, from the great vineyards of
California and the cotton fields of the South, from laundries, schools, and hospitals, and
women who work at home—shopping, cooking, cleaning, raising kids, and performing
the hundreds of thousands of volunteer jobs that keep our society functioning. (1970:397)
Abzug imagines a Congress that represents the interests of working women across the United
States—and Congress in the 1960s and 1970s, full of upper class white men, does not. It seems
that both Chisholm and Abzug are calling for descriptive representation, or more women in
Congress, in order to achieve substantive representation—the representation of women’s
interests. Only by changing the physical composition of Congress can women and other
minorities achieve their policy goals. The people must fill the state with actors who represent the
5
Descriptive representation refers to refer to the identifying features that a representative might share with different
constituencies, such as race, gender, or level of education. Substantive representation refers to the extent to which an elected
official represents the interests of a certain social group, regardless of shared attributes (Dovi 2011).
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 25 interests of the oppressed, and women, due to their inherent moral superiority or their unique
position as a suppressed minority6, are the right citizens to represent the interests of oppressed
groups.
In order for women to enter Congress, contend Chisholm and Abzug, they must channel
their reputable organizing power into electing women and running for office themselves. Both
Chisholm and Abzug tout the political organizing skills of women because they did political
organizing themselves and because they saw its power on their own campaigns. Chisholm writes,
“Discrimination against women in politics is particularly unjust, because no political
organization I have seen could function without women. They do all the work that the men won’t
do. I know, because I have done it all” (1970:92). Abzug echoes these sentiments and challenges
women to step up. In a speech at the New York City Commission on Human Rights Hearings in
1970, she says:
Women are in politics. They know how to organize. They recognize their needs. But they
are going to have to upgrade their demands and seek a full share in political power and
leadership. And I submit that what is good for women will turn out to be good for the
entire country. (Abzug 1970:398).
Both Abzug and Chisholm contend that women are the best political organizers. It follows then,
that they should use their organizing prowess to elect women who will represent their interests.
There may be a double benefit to women organizers running for office: They already know how
to run a successful campaign, and they will represent the interests of women and other oppressed
groups once elected. Chisholm and Abzug likely knew this and encouraged women organizers to
run for office for these reasons.
4
See Women as different from men above
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 26 The Women’s Movement and Race
Chisholm and Abzug agree on the need for more women in elective office; however, they
have different perceptions of the women’s movement, likely due to their different social
locations. In both of Abzug’s books, she praises the women’s movement for its inclusivity; for
example, in Gender Gap, she writes:
One of the putdowns that has continually plagued the women’s movement is the charge
that it speaks only for white middle-class women. To the contrary, there has always been
an acute sensitivity to the need for representing the interests of all women. (1984:22)
Here, it seems that Abzug feels as though she has the right to speak on behalf of the entire
women’s movement. This confidence may come from a combination of factors. Abzug was
arguably one of the key figures in the women’s movement, along with Betty Friedan and Gloria
Steinem, and her confidence in speaking for the movement could come from her proximity to its
leadership. Additionally, Abzug’s position as a white, upper-middle class feminist—a position of
privilege within the women’s movement—may mask, to a certain extent, the realities of the
movement for poor women and women of color. Thus, the women’s movement, from Abzug’s
angle, seems inclusive of all women—but Chisholm sees it differently.
From Chisholm’s point of view as a black woman, the women’s movement does not
always address the needs of lower class women and women of color. In an interview with Mae
Dell in Off Our Backs, Chisholm says:
The minority woman has a different set of priorities from many of the women in the
women’s movement who are functioning or who are regarded as the leadership in the
liberation movement in this country today. So that is why I say the minority women have
some definite concerns and they’re wondering whether or not white women, particularly
middle-class and upper-class white women, can really understand what it means to be
Black and female, or Indian and female, Puerto Rican or Chicana and female at the same
time, or of the two strikes you’re going up against. (Chisholm and Dell 1974:9).
Chisholm sees a women’s movement that is white and middle-class—not the all-inclusive
movement that Abzug perceives. Chisholm challenges white women to attempt to understand the
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 27 double discrimination that women of color face every day due to their gender and their race.
Indeed, since Chisholm herself faces this each day in the national spotlight, she recognizes that
the women’s movement is not all-inclusive. But it does not seem that Chisholm gives up on the
women’s movement altogether; rather, she tells the leaders of the movement how they can begin
to encompass the needs of all women into their agenda.
Though Chisholm is at times critical of the women’s movement, she also praises its
effectiveness when politically expedient. Chisholm, a bold proponent of coalition politics, seeks
to bring groups of people—especially marginalized groups—together in her campaigns in order
to affect the most change. In her piece “The Politics of Coalition,” Chisholm writes, “The
women’s movement seeks to present an alternative to ‘American woman’ —one which I feel is
much more conducive to the peculiar nature and needs of the black woman” (1972:32). Here,
while promoting her brand of coalition politics, Chisholm commends the women’s movement for
its inclusivity of women of color, while she criticizes the movement for its lack of inclusion at
other times. It seems that when emphasizing her commitment to coalition politics, Chisholm is
more likely to praise one of the key pieces of her potential coalition—the women’s movement—
so that it continues to support her campaign(s). Certainly, this shows political savvy on
Chisholm’s part. It also shows the constant balancing act Chisholm maintains between two
groups: the women’s movement and the civil rights or black power movement. Chisholm needs
the support of both movements to win elections, so she must appease two groups with very
different ideas and methods. In calling for coalition politics, Chisholm seeks to bring
marginalized groups together to achieve justice for all—not just white, middle-class women.
Clearly, Chisholm must constantly balance her gender and her race in the political realm,
and throughout her literary works, she discusses the effects of race and racial inequality on her
political self. Aware of the depth of racism in American life, she writes:
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 28 I never struck back at the black men who wanted to argue with me … I understood all too
well their reasons for lashing out at black women; in a society that denied them real
manhood, I was threatening their shaky self-esteem still more. (1970:71)
Evidently, Chisholm recognizes the complexities of the ways that race can affect gender
dynamics in the black community; however, she does not allow these to prevent her from
entering electoral politics. In fact, Chisholm uses race and racial justice as organizing and
unifying tools in her campaigns; for example, when discussing her 1972 presidential campaign,
she writes:
I am asking my brothers and sisters to give me a chance. The time has come when we no
longer have to be the passive recipients of whatever the politicians of this nation may
decree for us. We no longer have to remain disillusioned, apathetic, helpless and
powerless. (1973:83)
Here, Chisholm speaks directly to her black supporters, asking them to support her presidential
campaign and appealing to their imminent empowerment if they elect her. However, as always,
Chisholm still has to maintain a balance between different supporters of her campaign. In this
vein, she writes:
My potential support went far beyond the black community. It could come from the
women’s movement, from young voters, and even from a growing number of older white
voters who had reached the end of their patience with the programs and candidates of the
two major parties … I was far and away the strongest black candidate, because,
paradoxically, I was not solely a black candidate. (1973:38)
Chisholm recognizes that her platform appeals to a myriad of groups, and she must balance the
needs of these groups in order to garner enough support to become a viable presidential
candidate. As Chisholm notes, perhaps paradoxically, she makes the best black candidate
because of her attractiveness to many different groups. She must constantly negotiate her
woman-ness and blackness because of her unique position as a black woman in politics.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 29 Feminism, Humanism, and “Of the people”
Perhaps because she constantly negotiates her blackness and her woman-ness, Chisholm
is more hesitant than Abzug to identify as a feminist. In most of Chisholm’s texts,7 she is aloof
when referencing her own feminism, choosing instead to discuss the necessity of coalition
building to affect change. Conversely, Abzug proudly wields her feminism throughout her texts,8
describing herself as “an active feminist, lawyer, social reformer, wife, mother, and independent
woman” (1984:19). Indeed, Abzug tells an anecdote, narrated in Bella Abzug: How One Tough
Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled
for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up
Politics Along the Way, that shows her outward commitment to feminism. Discussing feminist
support for her congressional bid, she recounts:
I went to Susan Brownmiller, who was very progressive and who was a district leader at
the time. I said, ‘Susan, I want to talk to the radical feminists.’ She said, ‘Are you crazy?’
I said, ‘What do you mean crazy? I’m running for office. I’m a feminist. I’m probably the
only feminist that’s going to run, in God knows how many years … I expect the feminist
support.’ She said, ‘They will not support you … first of all, you wear lipstick.’ I said,
‘Well, look, I’m not changing that, for the radical feminists or anybody else. I’m fifty
years old.’ … Then she said, ‘Well, you’re going to tell them a key part of the campaign
is the Vietnam War? … They don’t give a damn about the Vietnam War, they only care
about their rights, their individual rights, their abortion rights …’ I said, ‘Listen, I can
give them a feminist interpretation as to why they should be opposed to the war in
Vietnam.’ (Levine and Thom 2007:107)
Here, Abzug adamantly maintains her identity as a feminist, while recognizing that she is not a
radical feminist. Since Abzug runs her campaign partly on women’s equality issues, she knows
she must secure feminist support, especially from the radical feminists who may have different
views on how to affect change. This story highlights Abzug’s intense, outspoken commitment to
feminism, while Chisholm is hesitant to embrace such an identity.
7 Texts that I read for this paper; see METHODOLOGY or REFERENCES
8
Texts that I read for this paper; see METHODOLOGY or REFERENCES
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 30 Chisholm, however wary, does identify as a feminist. I found only one interview in which
she acknowledges her own feminism. In an interview for Off Our Backs, Mae Dell asks
Chisholm, “Do you identify as a feminist?” (Chisholm and Dell 1974:9). Chisholm replies,
“Umhum” (Chisholm and Dell 1974:9). When asked directly, Chisholm admits to being a
feminist, but barely. The lack of a resounding “Yes” points to a key tension for Chisholm. As I
alluded to above9, it suggests her constant negotiation of two marginalized identities and their
resulting activist movements in society. She needs both the women’s movement and the black
power movement in order to win her political campaigns; she cannot risk alienating the black
power movement by identifying as a feminist without reservation, nor can she risk losing the
support of the women’s movement by refusing this label. This negotiation arguably culminates in
her “Umhum” response to the “Are you a feminist” question—Chisholm delicately seeks to
pacify both movements with her answer.
Though Abzug and Chisholm profess their feminisms to different extents, both are quick
to claim that they are candidates “of the people,” taking a humanist approach to their political
campaigns. For Chisholm, this rhetoric seems to be a continuation of her emphasis on coalition
building in electoral politics. For example, when describing her presidential campaign in The
Good Fight, Chisholm writes:
I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the
candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am
equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests …
I am the candidate of the people. (1973:71)
Here, Chisholm refuses the label of “black candidate” or “woman candidate” and instead focuses
on her emergence as the candidate of the people. As she sees it, her role is “that of a potential
voice for all the out-groups” (Chisholm 1973:89), not just those groups of which she is a part.
9
See The Women’s Movement and Race, above ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 31 Chisholm rejects any label that does not coincide with her coalition building approach, using
lofty rhetoric that portrays her campaign as a fight for the rights of people across the United
States, not just the “privileged white upper classes” (Chisholm 1973:161) that many other
politicians cater to. Again, to wage a successful candidacy, Chisholm must keep the support of
the black movement and the women’s movement, as well as gain support of other
underprivileged groups in society. Claiming that she is the candidate “of the people” allows her
to effectively garner the support of all of these groups.
Like Chisholm, Abzug also uses “of the people” rhetoric in her campaigns, for similar
reasons. Abzug runs her congressional campaigns on women’s issues; however, she must also
appeal to men in her district and others who may not see women’s issues as most important.
Thus, she also takes on an “of the people” mindset wherein she attempts to appeal to many
groups in order to win her campaign. She writes, regarding her ability “to relate to all people”
(Abzug 1972:241):
It’s no joke to me that women in this country are terribly oppressed and are made to
suffer economic, legal, and social discrimination. I am not evoking a wild fantasy when I
claim that I’m going to help organize a new political coalition of the women, the
minorities, and the young people, along with the poor, the elderly, the workers and the
unemployed, which is going to turn this country upside down and inside out. (Abzug
1972:3)
Here, Abzug begins with her commitment to women—appropriate, as women’s issues were
central to her campaign. Then, she mentions the other groups that she is going to use in order to
build a coalition that will affect change in the country. Indeed, this “coalition building” rhetoric
is reminiscent of Chisholm’s. Both women want to create an inclusive movement, not just for
electoral success, but also for the good of people across the country. Perhaps the early 1970s
offers a context in which the country feels the combined effects of the civil rights movement and
the women’s movement, allowing for such coalition building rhetoric to become effective in
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 32 electoral politics. That both Chisholm and Abzug seek to build a movement of oppressed groups
in society arguably shows their commitment to activism—a commitment that they balance
impeccably with their positions as elected officials.
Lack of Tension Between Activism and Electoral Politics
Initially, I expected to find a tension between activism and electoral politics for both
Abzug and Chisholm; however, upon in-depth examination of their writings, it seems that
electoral politics is an extension of activism for both of these women. This makes sense in the
context of the time, at the height of the civil rights movement and the women’s movement, as
women and black Americans fight for and gain rights and acceptance in society. In order to
affect change, shaking up the system is necessary. Women and black Americans entering the
establishment represent an activist stance because, by entering it, they are fundamentally
changing its composition. In this way, it appears that Chisholm and Abzug see their entrances
into electoral politics as necessary extensions of their activism. They frame their discussions on
the topic in three ways: talking vs. action, working outside of the system and inside
simultaneously, and the necessity of working inside the system.
Talking vs. action
Both Abzug and Chisholm refer to their propensities to do rather than talk about doing.
When describing her political style, Abzug writes:
You see, that’s the difference between me and almost everybody else. I’m an activist. I
want action—not talk. You can’t just sit around and think or talk and expect to get
anywhere. It’s not that I don’t think. Of course I do. But my thing is doing. I don’t go
around philosophizing. I go around doing. (1972:167)
Here, Abzug adamantly defends her activist nature, even when she is working inside the system
as a Congresswoman. She goes so far as to criticize “talkers,” likely other members of Congress,
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 33 who do not share her commitment to action. Chisholm echoes such sentiments, especially when
discussing her experiences talking with white leaders about race. She writes:
In the last twenty years I have sat through more meetings and discussions than I want to
remember and have seen very little get done … It had begun to be clear that as long as we
kept talking, nothing much was going to happen, and that this was what the ‘leading
people’ really wanted. (Chisholm 1970:44)
Chisholm recognizes that “talking” with white political and community leaders does not lead to
tangible results for women or black Americans, and in fact, white, male leaders do not want to
change the status quo. Thus, Chisholm also considers herself a person of action, because she
knows from experience that talking leads nowhere.
Outside and inside simultaneously
Chisholm and Abzug also position themselves as insiders and outsiders at the same time,
likely to appease their activist bases and because they truly believe that working inside the
system is necessary for change. For example, Abzug writes:
I am an activist. I’m the kind of person who does things at the same time that I’m
working to create a feeling that something can be done … my role, as I see it, is among
the people, and I am going to be outside organizing them at the same time that I’m inside
fighting for them. (1972:5)
Once again, Abzug takes pride in her identity as an activist, and here, she sees herself as working
for change inside and outside of the system at the same time. Abzug worked outside of the
system for many years with Women Strike for Peace, an organization dedicated to ending the
war in Vietnam, before she decided to run for Congress at age 50. Perhaps because of this
experience, she does not see activism outside of the system and activism within the system as
mutually exclusive, recognizing that there are benefits to both.
Chisholm uses similar inside/outside rhetoric when discussing what she feels is her most
valuable function in Congress. She writes:
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 34 My most valuable function, I think, is as a voice. The accident of my prominence at this
period in the struggle of my race for justice and equality can be a good thing if I use it
well. I work to be a major force for change outside the House, even if I cannot be one
within it. (Chisholm 1970:127)
Here, Chisholm recognizes that she may not be able to get as much done in the House as she
would like due to her newcomer status and her doubly disadvantaged black woman identity;
however, she knows that she has the power to affect real change outside of the system.
Additionally, she does not give up trying to work within the state; in fact, she is adamant that
working within the system is necessary for survival.
Necessity of working inside the system
Stemming from the assertion that Chisholm and Abzug work inside and outside the
system simultaneously comes their contention that working inside the system is absolutely
necessary to affect positive change. Both women encourage others to work within the state for
change, while recognizing that some activists may choose to work outside the system. Abzug and
Chisholm must defend their commitment to working inside of the system, as many black power
activists and young activists do not see electoral politics as a legitimate way to do activism.
Chisholm reflects upon such an experience in Unbought and Unbossed, writing:
‘I am fighting,’ I tell them. ‘I know I’m here in Congress, part of Establishment, but you
can see that I haven’t started to conform, I haven’t sold out. I’m fighting within the
system. There is no other place to fight, if only you understood it. There’s no other way
for us to survive, because we really don’t have anything.’ (1970:158).
Chisholm pleads with young black power activists here: Working within the system is the only
option for affecting real change. Chisholm maintains that black Americans have no power, so
working outside of the system is useless—first, they must gain power within the state in order to
be able to work effectively outside it.
Abzug also faces criticism for working within the state. She recalls, “My speech dealt
with encouraging these kids to use political power to effect change. ‘The establishment should
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 35 kiss you for putting it that way,’ somebody said. But the establishment is made up of little men,
very frightened” (Abzug 1972:144). Here, Abzug tells young people to work for change within
the state because the white men currently holding power are afraid that this exact thing will
happen. By entering the system and gaining some power within it, young people, and other
groups, can use their positions to create the broader social change they seek.
Clearly, Abzug and Chisholm recognize that working within the state—within the
establishment—is necessary for affecting any type of societal change because politicians
wielding power make key decisions there. Once Abzug, Chisholm, and their supporters have a
say in these decisions, they can work to affect change for the people they fight for and represent
in Congress.
CONCLUSION
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm worked to eliminate
racism and sexism in the United States, and while doing so, apparently did not feel a tension
between their activist selves and their electoral political selves. Certainly, it is possible that
Chisholm and Abzug felt an underlying tension internally, but did not discuss it in their
published texts; however, from my examination of their published texts, a tension does not
present itself. Indeed, it even seems that Chisholm and Abzug view their electoral political roles
as extensions of their activism, claiming that fighting for change within the system is absolutely
necessary for affecting real social change.
Though the two had similar feelings about electoral politics as an extension of activism, it
is also important to acknowledge the differences that emerged between Chisholm and Abzug.
Indeed, their distinct social locations gave them different perspectives—Abzug saw the women’s
movement as all-inclusive, while Chisholm saw a large gap in the movement’s attention to
women of color. In spite of this, Chisholm espoused coalition building, especially in her
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 36 presidential campaign, wherein she tried to bring together diverse, oppressed groups to fight for
change, perhaps serving as a model for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in
2008. Chisholm recognized the value in bringing together groups of people, including the leaders
of the women’s movement, in order to affect the most meaningful social change. Bringing
together diverse groups of people was perhaps easier to do on a national scale than on a local
scale, so Chisholm used electoral politics for activism during her presidential bid. Chisholm and
Abzug both used their electoral political power for activist purposes, fighting for the rights of
women, people of color, and the poor.
Though I examined as many primary texts as possible, this project clearly has its
limitations. First, I did not examine all possible texts written by Abzug and Chisholm. Second,
time limitations of one semester, or four months, did not allow for an extremely in-depth
assessment. Third, I only examined the texts of two women politicians, limiting the sample
considerably; therefore, this research cannot be generalized to include all liberal women
politicians in the 1970s, an important note. In the future, researchers might look into more texts
written by Chisholm and Abzug or examine the texts of more women politicians, such as Barbara
Jordan and Patsy Mink. Additionally, they may want to examine such texts across decades,
perhaps doing a comparative of today’s women politicians and those of the past.
But what are the implications of my findings for progressive women politicians today? It
is unclear that the political context in the 2010s offers a similar political context to the 1960s and
1970s, when the country was ensconced in the effects of the civil rights movement and the
women’s movement to a far greater extent. Today, increased party polarization, general
acceptance of women and people of color in electoral politics, and claims that we are in a postfeminist and post-racial society may contribute to an increasing gap between grassroots activism
and electoral, party politics. When Chisholm and Abzug ran for office, they were doing activism
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 37 simply by running and winning, due to the dearth of women, especially women of color, in
elective office. Today, though the lack of women and women of color in electoral politics is still
highly problematic, many Americans do not see it that way, and a number of social justice
leaders no longer view electoral politics as a potential activist space.
Indeed, though the contexts differ, what can progressive women politicians and activists
learn from the experiences of Chisholm and Abzug? Arguably, they can learn the value of
coalition building, which Chisholm exposed to the country during her 1972 presidential bid, and
which both Chisholm and Abzug used to bring together diverse groups of people for positive
social change. They can also learn that electoral, party politics and grassroots activism are not
mutually exclusive. Though it may be more difficult to combine the two in the 2010s, the
legacies of Abzug and Chisholm show us that it is possible. Today’s progressive women
politicians can look to Chisholm and Abzug as examples of how to balance electoral politics and
activism, while continuing to forge their own pathways for social change.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 38 REFERENCES
Abzug, Bella. 1970. “Women in Elective Office.” Pp. 394-398 in Feminism in Our Time: The
Essential Writings, World War II to the Present, edited by Miriam Schneir. New York,
NY: Vintage Books.
Abzug, Bella. 1972. Bella! Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington. New York, NY: Saturday Review
Press.
Abzug, Bella and Mim Kelber. 1984. Gender Gap. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Atkins-Sayre, Wendy. 2005. “Naming Women: The Emergence of ‘Ms.’ As a Liberatory Title.”
Women and Language 28(1): 8. (Retrieved from ProQuest on October 16, 2013)
Brown, Tammy. 2008. “‘A New Era in American Politics’: Shirley Chisholm and the Discourse
of Identity.” Callaloo 31(4):1013-1025
Brownmiller, Susan. 1970. Shirley Chisholm. Doubleday & Company: Garden City, NY.
Carroll, Susan. 2003. Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions. Oxford
University Press.
Champagne, Rosaria. 1995. “Feminism, essentialism, and historical context.” Women’s Studies
25(1):95. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier on December 8, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1970. Unbought & Unbossed. Washington, DC: Take Root Media.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1972. “The Politics of Coalition.” The Black Scholar 4(1): 30-32. Retrieved
from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1973. The Good Fight. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1983. “Racism and Anti-Feminism.” The Black Scholar 14(5): 2-7. Retrieved
from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley and Mae Dell. 1974. “Sister Shirley Says Interview.” Off Our Backs, March
1974, pp. 9, 25. Retrieved from JSTOR on October 9, 2013.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 39 Dovi, Suzanne. 2011. "Political Representation." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
(Retrieved from <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/politicalrepresentation/> on November 30, 2013).
Faye-Williams, Linda. 2001. “The Civil Rights-Black Power Legacy: Black Women Elected
Officials at the Local, State, and National Levels.” Pp.306-331 in Sisters in the Struggle:
African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement, edited by CollierThomas, Bettye, and V.P. Franklin. New York University Press: New York, NY.
Feree, Myra M. 1974. “A Woman for President? Changing Responses: 1958-1972.” The Public
Opinion Quarterly 38(3):390-399. (Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013)
Gallagher, Julie. 2012. Black Women and Politics in New York City. University of Illinois Press:
Urbana, IL.
Gallagher, Julie. 2007. “Waging ‘The Good Fight’: The Political Career of Shirley Chisholm.
The Journal of African American History 92(3):392-416. Retrieved from JSTOR on
September 22, 2013.
Githens, Marianne and Jewel Prestage. 1977. A Portrait of Marginality: The Political Behavior
of the American Woman. David McKay Company, Inc.
Howe, Florence. 1998. “A Tribute to Two International Feminist Leaders: Bella Abzug and
Alice H. Cook.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 26(3-4):271-278. Retrieved from JSTOR on
September 22, 2013.
Jewish Virtual Library 1997. “Bella Abzug.” Maryland: The American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise.
Retrieved
November
19,
2013.
(http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/abzug.html).
Levine, Suzanne B, and Mary Thom. 2007. Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx
Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 40 Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics
Along the Way. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, NY.
McClain, Paula, Carter, Niambi, and Michael Brady. 2008. “Gender and Black Presidential
Politics: From Chisholm to Moseley Braun. Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 27(12):51-68.
Mungen, Donna. 2008. “Shirley Chisholm.” Pp. 753-756 in Great Lives from History, edited by
R.F. Gorman. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press. Retrieved from E-Book collection EBSCOhost
on December 10, 2013.
National Women’s History Museum 2013. “Shirley Anita Chisholm.” Alexandria, VA: National
Women’s
History
Museum.
Retrieved
November
19,
2013
(http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/shirley-anitachisholm/).
Prestage, Jewel. 1991. “In Quest of African American Political Woman.” Annals of the American
Academy of Political Science 515:88-103. Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22,
2013.
Rodgers, Kathy. 1998. “Bella Abzug: A Leader of Vision and Voice.” Columbia Law Review
98(5):1145-1147. Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Thomas, Sue and Clyde Wilcox. 1998. Women and Elective Office. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wright, Sharon D. 1999. “Black Women in Congress during the Post-Civil Rights Movement
Era.” Pp. 149-163 in Still Lifting, Still Climbing: African American Women’s
Contemporary Activism, edited by Kimberly Springer. New York, NY: New York
University Press.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 41 Zarnow, Leandra. 2010. “‘A Very Simple Sense of Justice’: Bella Abzug, Jewish Radicalism,
and the Legal Left from the Popular Front to the Cold War.” PhD Dissertation,
Department of Philosophy, University of California Santa Barbara. Retrieved from
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses on October 16, 2013.
Zarnow, Leandra. 2008. “Braving Jim Crow to Save Willie McGee: Bella Abzug, the Legal Left,
and Civil Rights Innovation, 1948–1951.” Law & Social Inquiry 33(4):1003-1041.
Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abzug, Bella. 1970. “Women in Elective Office.” Pp. 394-398 in Feminism in Our Time: The
Essential Writings, World War II to the Present, edited by Miriam Schneir. New York,
NY: Vintage Books.
Abzug, Bella. 1971. “Fighting Hard.” Vogue, June 1, pp. 94-95. Retrieved from the Vogue
Archive on October 9, 2013.
Abzug, Bella. 1972. Bella! Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington. New York, NY: Saturday Review
Press.
Abzug, Bella. 1974. “Bella’s Eye View of Her Party’s Future.” Ms., April, pp. 64-65.
Abzug, Bella. 1975. “Gift we can give ourselves.” Ms., December, pp. 55.
Abzug, Bella and Cynthia Edgar. 1972. “Women and Politics: The Struggle for Representation.”
The Massachusetts Review 13(1): 17-24. Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Abzug, Bella and Mim Kelber. 1984. Gender Gap. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Atkins-Sayre, Wendy. 2005. “Naming Women: The Emergence of ‘Ms.’ As a Liberatory Title.”
Women and Language 28(1): 8. (Retrieved from ProQuest on October 16, 2013)
Brown, Tammy. 2008. “‘A New Era in American Politics’: Shirley Chisholm and the Discourse
of Identity.” Callaloo 31(4):1013-1025
Brownmiller, Susan. 1970. Shirley Chisholm. Doubleday & Company: Garden City, NY.
Carroll, Susan. 2003. Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions. Oxford
University Press.
Champagne, Rosaria. 1995. “Feminism, essentialism, and historical context.” Women’s Studies
25(1):95. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier on December 8, 2013.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 43 Chisholm, Shirley. “Equal Rights for Women.” Presented on the floor of the U.S. House of
Representatives, May 21, 1969, Washington, D.C. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
(http://gos.sbc.edu/c/chisholm.html).
Chisholm, Shirley. 1970. Unbought & Unbossed. Washington, DC: Take Root Media.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1971. “Race, Revolution and Women.” The Black Scholar 42(2): 31-35.
Retrieved from Academic Search Premier on September 22, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1972. “The Politics of Coalition.” The Black Scholar 4(1): 30-32. Retrieved
from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1973. The Good Fight. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
Chisholm, Shirley. 1974. “The Twin Jeopardies of Race and Sex.” Presented at the University of
Missouri, 1974, Columbia, MO. Retrieved November 16, 2013
(http://www.shirleychisholm.org/index.php/about-unbought-and-unbossed/81-the-twinjeopardies-of-race-and-sex)
Chisholm, Shirley. 1983. “Racism and Anti-Feminism.” The Black Scholar 14(5): 2-7. Retrieved
from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. “Vote for the Individual, Not the Political Party.” Presented to The
Independent Black Women’s Caucus, June 24, 1978, New York City, New York.
Retrieved from EBSCO on October 9, 2013.
Chisholm, Shirley and Mae Dell. 1974. “Sister Shirley Says Interview.” Off Our Backs, March
1974, pp. 9, 25. Retrieved from JSTOR on October 9, 2013.
Dovi, Suzanne. 2011. "Political Representation." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
(Retrieved from <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/politicalrepresentation/> on November 30, 2013).
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 44 Faye-Williams, Linda. 2001. “The Civil Rights-Black Power Legacy: Black Women Elected
Officials at the Local, State, and National Levels.” Pp.306-331 in Sisters in the Struggle:
African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement, edited by CollierThomas, Bettye, and V.P. Franklin. New York University Press: New York, NY.
Feree, Myra M. 1974. “A Woman for President? Changing Responses: 1958-1972.” The Public
Opinion Quarterly 38(3):390-399. (Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013)
Gallagher, Julie. 2012. Black Women and Politics in New York City. University of Illinois Press:
Urbana, IL.
Gallagher, Julie. 2007. “Waging ‘The Good Fight’: The Political Career of Shirley Chisholm.
The Journal of African American History 92(3):392-416. Retrieved from JSTOR on
September 22, 2013.
Githens, Marianne and Jewel Prestage. 1977. A Portrait of Marginality: The Political Behavior
of the American Woman. David McKay Company, Inc.
Howe, Florence. 1998. “A Tribute to Two International Feminist Leaders: Bella Abzug and
Alice H. Cook.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 26(3-4):271-278. Retrieved from JSTOR on
September 22, 2013.
Jewish Virtual Library 1997. “Bella Abzug.” Maryland: The American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise.
Retrieved
November
19,
2013.
(http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/abzug.html).
Levine, Suzanne B, and Mary Thom. 2007. Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx
Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of
Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics
Along the Way. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, NY.
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 45 McClain, Paula, Carter, Niambi, and Michael Brady. 2008. “Gender and Black Presidential
Politics: From Chisholm to Moseley Braun. Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 27(12):51-68.
Mungen, Donna. 2008. “Shirley Chisholm.” Pp. 753-756 in Great Lives from History, edited by
R.F. Gorman. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press. Retrieved from E-Book collection EBSCOhost
on December 10, 2013.
National Women’s History Museum 2013. “Shirley Anita Chisholm.” Alexandria, VA: National
Women’s
History
Museum.
Retrieved
November
19,
2013
(http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/shirley-anitachisholm/).
Prestage, Jewel. 1991. “In Quest of African American Political Woman.” Annals of the American
Academy of Political Science 515:88-103. Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22,
2013.
Rodgers, Kathy. 1998. “Bella Abzug: A Leader of Vision and Voice.” Columbia Law Review
98(5):1145-1147. Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.
Thomas, Sue and Clyde Wilcox. 1998. Women and Elective Office. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wright, Sharon D. 1999. “Black Women in Congress during the Post-Civil Rights Movement
Era.” Pp. 149-163 in Still Lifting, Still Climbing: African American Women’s
Contemporary Activism, edited by Kimberly Springer. New York, NY: New York
University Press.
Zarnow, Leandra. 2010. “‘A Very Simple Sense of Justice’: Bella Abzug, Jewish Radicalism,
and the Legal Left from the Popular Front to the Cold War.” PhD Dissertation,
ELECTORAL POLITICS AS AN EXTENSION OF ACTIVISM 46 Department of Philosophy, University of California Santa Barbara. Retrieved from
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses on October 16, 2013.
Zarnow, Leandra. 2008. “Braving Jim Crow to Save Willie McGee: Bella Abzug, the Legal Left,
and Civil Rights Innovation, 1948–1951.” Law & Social Inquiry 33(4):1003-1041.
Retrieved from JSTOR on September 22, 2013.