Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder was an American politician who represented Colorado's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997.
36 Facts About Pat Schroeder
2.
Pat Schroeder moved to Des Moines, Iowa, with her family as a child, and earned her airman certificate when she was fifteen.
3.
Pat Schroeder graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1961 and earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1964.
4.
Pat Schroeder worked for the National Labor Relations Board from 1964 to 1966.
5.
Pat Schroeder worked for Planned Parenthood as a legal counsel, and taught in Denver's public schools.
6.
At age 32, Pat Schroeder was the second youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
7.
In 1984, Pat Schroeder was mentioned as a possible running mate for former Vice President Walter Mondale, but the nomination went to Rep.
8.
Years later, Pat Schroeder submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for her FBI file and discovered that she and her staff had been under surveillance during her first congressional campaign.
9.
Pat Schroeder learned that the FBI had recruited her husband's barber as an informant, and paid a man named Timothy Redfern to break into her home and steal "such all-important secret documents as my dues statement from the League of Women Voters and one of my campaign buttons", demonstrating to her "how paranoid J Edgar Hoover and his agency were".
10.
Pat Schroeder was a member of the original Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families that was established in 1983.
11.
Pat Schroeder was known during her early tenure in Congress for balancing her congressional work with motherhood, even bringing diapers to the floor of Congress, she was known for advocacy on work-family issues, a prime mover behind the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the 1985 Military Family Act.
12.
Pat Schroeder was involved in reform of Congress itself, working to weaken the long-standing control of committees by their chairs, sparring with Speaker Carl Albert over congressional "hideaways", and questioning why Congress members who lived in their offices should not be taxed for the benefit.
13.
The Washington Post remarked that Pat Schroeder was "known for her barbed wit", and many of her comments and quips were singled out for media attention during her career.
14.
Pat Schroeder chaired the 1988 presidential campaign of Gary Hart in 1987 until his withdrawal, at which point she strongly considered entering the race, before announcing she would not in a tearful press conference on September 29,1987.
15.
In 2007, twenty years later, Pat Schroeder said that she still received hate mail about the press conference, mostly from women, and said that it exposed a double standard for men and women in politics.
16.
Pat Schroeder remarked, "Guys have been tearing up all along and people think it's marvelous", she said, citing episodes dating back to Ronald Reagan; but for female candidates, it remains off-limits.
17.
Pat Schroeder did not seek re-election in 1996, citing dissatisfaction with the House's Republican majority.
18.
Pat Schroeder was succeeded by Colorado state house minority whip Diana DeGette, a fellow Democrat.
19.
Pat Schroeder was named president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers in 1997 and served in that post for 11 years.
20.
Pat Schroeder advocated for stronger copyright laws, supporting the government in Eldred v Ashcroft, and opposing Google's plan to digitize books and post limited content online.
21.
Pat Schroeder narrated a children's story, "The House that Went on Strike", which was released as a smartphone app in 2012.
22.
Pat Schroeder wrote about her experience narrating the story and offered her perspective about kids book apps in a July 24,2012, column in The Huffington Post.
23.
Pat Schroeder was an acquaintance of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who helped facilitate the move.
24.
In 2010, the city was within the state's 8th congressional district, and Pat Schroeder endorsed Democratic Rep.
25.
Pat Schroeder subsequently endorsed him again ahead of the 2012 congressional elections, during which he returned to Congress.
26.
Pat Schroeder sat on the board of the League of Women Voters of Florida.
27.
Pat Schroeder was a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organization which advocates for democratic reformation of the United Nations.
28.
On March 13,2023, Pat Schroeder died from complications of a stroke at a hospital in Celebration, Florida, at age 82.
29.
Pat Schroeder asked that a brick be made from her cremated remains to hold doors open for other women.
30.
Pat Schroeder was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.
31.
Pat Schroeder was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
32.
In 1988, Pat Schroeder was parodied in a Saturday Night Live skit in which she was portrayed by Nora Dunn as the moderator of the 1988 Republican Primary debate.
33.
Pat Schroeder denounced Limbaugh's remark on the floor of the House.
34.
Pat Schroeder contributed the piece "Running for Our Lives: Electoral Politics" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.
35.
Pat Schroeder was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board in 2010.
36.
Pat Schroeder was portrayed by Jan Radcliff in the 2016 HBO film Confirmation.