Petticoat Politics

Winslow's "Petticoat" Government
Photograph courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

In 1925 the voters of Winslow, Arkansas, elected an all female government consisting of Mayor Maude Duncan and Council members Lyda Cole, Florence Marley, Audie Crider, Bee Chervery, Daisy Miller, Etta Black, Martha Winn, Virginia C. Dunlap and Stella Winn. It became widely known as the Petticoat Government.

Metrics Florence McRaven, a labor specialist with the State Industrial Welfare League became the first woman to represent Pulaski County in the State Assembly, serving 1927-1931. She was defeated in 1930 in her attempt to run for the State Senate.

That same year McRaven gave up her seat in the Legislature, Hattie Wyatt Caraway was appointed to fill her late husband's seat in the United States Senate. Caraway became the first woman elected in her own right to the Senate in 1936. One of the hallmarks of her first campaign was making use of nurseries so that potential women voters could hear her campaign speeches without being distracted by their children. Caraway served until 1945, when she retired from the Senate and assumed a position in the federal government.

By 1997 twenty-two women served in the State Legislature. Six of the ten African-American members were women.

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