Dwyer, Florence Price, 1902-1976

<p>Florence Price Dwyer, a New Jersey Representative who described herself as a “progressive” Republican, pushed for civil rights legislation, consumer protection measures, and institutional reform during her 16-year House career. Though she did not consider herself a feminist, Dwyer was a consistent champion of women’s rights who supported the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and an “equal pay for equal work” bill modeled after one she had initially steered through the New Jersey state assembly.</p>

<p>Florence (Flo) Louise Price was born on July 4, 1902, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Educated in the public schools of Reading and Toledo, Ohio, she briefly attended college at the University of Toledo. Price left college to marry M. Joseph Dwyer, the Toledo football coach and, later, an industrial relations executive. The couple raised a son, Michael, and moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Florence Dwyer’s role as a member of the local parent teacher association initiated her interest in politics. She joined the Republican Club in Elizabeth in the 1930s: “At the time women were used to lick envelopes and take messages,” she recalled. A delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1944, Dwyer subsequently worked as a lobbyist in Trenton, the state capital, for the New Jersey Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. State assemblyman Joseph Brescher, who served as majority leader and speaker, hired Dwyer as his secretary. When Brescher retired in 1949, Dwyer succeeded him, serving from 1949 to 1957 and eventually rising to the assistant majority leader post.</p>

<p>In 1956, at the urging of New Jersey Senator Clifford Philip Case, Dwyer entered the Republican primary for a U.S. House district just south of Newark. The district coincided with the Union County boundaries and encompassed the most industrialized part of the state. Dwyer’s chief competitor was Irene T. Griffin, a former assemblywoman. But Dwyer’s name recognition, her support across the party from moderates to conservatives, and her longtime base of support in Elizabeth, which sat in the eastern section of the district, helped her secure the nomination. She faced a two-term incumbent Democrat, Harrison Arlington Williams Jr., in the general election. Historically a Republican stronghold, beginning in 1951, factionalism within the party had weakened the GOP’s grip on the district. The 1956 campaign quickly became a contest over which of the candidates could best court the voters who supported President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dwyer centered her campaign on domestic issues such as more funding for education and pressing for an equal-pay bill in Congress. Vice President Richard M. Nixon campaigned for Dwyer, while Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Ewing Stevenson III stumped for Williams. Dwyer’s campaign literature read: “Ike Wants Flo” and “A Vote for Flo Is a Vote for Ike.” The incumbent President carried the district by nearly 80,000 votes, while Dwyer edged out Williams by a little more than 4,000. (Williams would go on to serve in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades.)</p>

<p>Florence Price Dwyer (July 4, 1902 – February 29, 1976) was an American Republican Party politician who represented much of Essex County, New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1973. From 1967 to 1973, she also represented parts of Union County, New Jersey.</p>

<p>She was the second woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey. She was the first woman Republican from New Jersey elected to the House. Dwyer was an advocate for women's rights throughout her political career.</p>

<p>Dwyer was born Florence Louise Price in Reading, Pennsylvania. She went to public school in Reading and Toledo, Ohio after moving there. Dwyer later moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey. She took courses at Rutgers Law School and became State Legislation Chairman of the New Jersey Federation of Business and Professional Women.</p>