Former Democratic Colorado Rep. Patricia Schroeder died at age 82 from complications after suffering a stroke.
Her daughter Jamie said Schroeder was admitted to a hospital in Celebration, Florida, due to her stroke and died there Monday night, The New York Times reported.
“women seemed to make many congressmen antsy. ‘It’s really funny if two women stand on the House floor,’ she said. ‘There are usually at least two men who go by and say, ‘What is this, a coup?’ They’re almost afraid to see us in public together.” https://t.co/WUrRHiqwLe
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) March 14, 2023
Schroeder served in House of Representatives for 24 years, winning her first election in 1972 as a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War, and served on the Armed Services Committee, according to the House of Representatives Archives. She was one of only 14 women to serve in Congress at the time and the first woman to be elected from Colorado and serve in her committee assignment. (RELATED: Former Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick Dies At 56)
She was known as an outspoken feminist who served as a major proponent for passing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to hand women and men a guaranteed 18 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a family member, according to The New York Times. She also helped pass the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act to prohibit employers from terminating a pregnant woman’s employment and denying them maternity benefits.
Schroeder vocally supported abortion and cheered on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a constitutional amendment intended to grant equal protection on the basis of sex.
She was born on July 30, 1940, in Portland, Oregon, to a father who worked as a pilot and a mother who was a public school teacher, according to the House Archives. She graduated from Harvard Law School and married her classmate, James Schroeder, in 1962.
She is survived by her husband, her daughter and her son, Scott Schroeder, according to The New York Times.