Former Rep. Pat Schroeder, pioneer for women’s rights, dies

• A politician who fought for women’s rights, has died at the age of 82.
• Former Rep. Pat Schroeder died Monday night.
• She suffered a stroke.

On Monday, March 13 we lost a pioneer in the fight for women’s rights. Politician and former member of the United States House of Representatives, Pat Schroeder, died at the age of 82.

Schroeder shook up the government and forced her colleagues to recognize that women do have a vital role in the political process.

Former Rep. Pat Schroeder dies

According to the AP, former US Representative Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died at the age of 82, as confirmed by her former press secretary.

Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder recently suffered a stroke and died Monday night at a hospital in Celebration, Florida, the city where she had been residing in recent years.

Pat Schroeder forced government institutions recognize women’s role in politics

Schroeder took on the powerful elite with her sharp with and unorthodox methods for 24 years, shaking up staid government institutions and forcing them to recognize that women have a role in politics.

She lost important committee seats but Schroeder said she wasn’t about to join what she called “the good old boys’ club” just to score political points. Not afraid to embarrass her congressional colleagues in public, she became an icon of the feminist movement.

Schroeder won re-election multiple times

Schroeder was elected to Congress in Colorado in 1972 and became one of its most influential Democrats, easily winning re-election 11 times from her safe district in Denver. Despite her seniority, she was never appointed to head a committee.

Schroeder helped carve out several Democratic majorities before deciding in 1997 that it was time to go. Her farewell in 1998 was a book titled 24 Years of Housework … and the Place is Still a Mess. My Life in Politics, which recounts her frustration with male dominance and the slow pace of change in federal institutions.

Schroeder continued to work in politics

Schroeder was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 30, 1940. She graduated from the University of Minnesota before earning her law degree in 1964. From 1964 to 1966, she was a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board. She is survived by her husband, James W. Schroeder, whom she married in 1962. She is also survived by her two sons, Scott and Jamie, and her brother, Mike Scott, as well as four grandchildren, according to The Associated Press.

Schroeder continued to work in politics after moving to Florida, going door-to-door, speaking to groups and advising candidates. She participated in political initiatives across the country and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Among other activities, she was part of the board of directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.