Green, Edith, 1910-1987

<p>Edith Louise Starrett Green (January 17, 1910 – April 21, 1987) was an American politician and educator from Oregon. She was the second Oregonian woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served a total of ten terms, from 1955 to 1974, as a Democrat.</p>

<p>Green advanced women's issues, education, and social reform; she played an instrumental role in passing the 1972 Equal Opportunity in Education Act, better known as Title IX.</p>

<p>She was born Edith Louise Starrett in Trent, South Dakota. Her family moved to Oregon in 1916, where she attended schools in Salem, attending Willamette University from 1927 to 1929. She worked as a schoolteacher and advocate of education in 1929, married Arthur N. Green in 1930, and left school to begin a family.</p>

<p>Few women in Congress have left such a substantial legacy as did Edith Starrett Green, and few have demonstrated such independence of mind and deed. From the time that she was elected to the 84th Congress (1955–1957), through her service in the nine succeeding Congresses, she left her mark on almost every education bill enacted and subsequently gained considerable influence in the Democratic Party despite her refusal to support the party’s Presidents on all issues. Though Representative Green originally supported federal aid to education and the antipoverty programs, she grew disillusioned with what she perceived as an inefficient federal bureaucracy. Her increased frustration with “big government” contributed to her eventual drift from the liberal agenda of the Democrats.</p>

<p>The daughter of two schoolteachers, James Vaughn and Julia Hunt Starrett, Edith Louise Starrett was born on January 17, 1910, in Trent, South Dakota. At the age of six, she and her family moved to Oregon, where she went to public schools in Salem. She attended Willamette University from 1927 to 1929 and later enrolled at the University of Oregon, where she eventually graduated in 1939. While teaching school in Salem, Oregon, in 1933, she married Arthur N. Green. The Greens raised two sons, James and Richard, but later divorced. After 11 years as an educator, Edith became an announcer at KALE radio station in Portland, Oregon, and also served as legislative chairperson of the Oregon Congress of Parents and Teachers for three years. In this leadership position, Green gained experience in state politics, advanced her knowledge of national and regional educational issues, and learned the importance of lobbying—all of which served as a valuable foundation for her future career in Congress.</p>

<p>Upon the urging of friends and Democratic officials, Green ran for secretary of state of Oregon in 1952. Although unsuccessful in her bid, she garnered enough public exposure to make a competitive run for the House seat encompassing much of Portland, Oregon, and its eastern suburbs in 1954. After winning by a wide margin against her closest competitor, C. S. Johnston, in the Democratic primary, Green subsequently defeated the state’s future governor, Republican Tom McCall, in the general election with 52 percent of the vote. She became the second woman to represent Oregon in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Nan Wood Honeyman was the first in 1937.) Green went on to win her nine succeeding elections with ease, rarely facing any serious opposition. Although offered the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate on three separate occasions, she opted to continue serving in the House. Citing a fondness for the seniority system, which she believed allowed women the capacity to wield power that otherwise would remain unattainable because of gender discrimination, Green also feared the steep cost of a Senate campaign would require accepting contributions with “strings attached.”</p>