Schenk, Lynn, 1945-

<p>The daughter of working–class immigrants, Democrat Lynn Schenk won a hotly contested election in a majority Republican district to become the first woman to represent San Diego, California, in the U.S. House of Representatives. During her brief service, Schenk attempted to balance a policy of environmental protection, which she forged as a local politician with the business interests and booming biotechnical industry in her district. The Congresswoman eventually succumbed to the GOP resurgence in the 1994 election.</p>

<p>Lynn Schenk was born in the Bronx, New York, on January 5, 1945, to Hungarian immigrants. Her parents, Sidney and Elsa Schenk, survived the Nazi Holocaust and fled to the United States before 1945. She and her one brother, Fred, were raised in a working–class household; Sidney Schenk worked as a tailor, and Elsa Schenk was a manicurist. Lynn Schenk attended the Beth Jacobs School for Girls of the East Bronx. When she was 14, her family moved to California. In 1962, she graduated from Hamilton High School, in Los Angeles. Schenk earned a B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1967. Three years later, she received her J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School. Schenk confronted a male–dominated institution and, with the support of fellow female students, pressed the law school into building female restroom facilities in convenient locations. In 1970, she pursued postgraduate studies in international law at the London School of Economics. In 1972 Lynn Schenk married a University of San Diego law professor, C. Hugh Friedman, becoming the stepmother to his three children. Schenk became the deputy attorney general in the criminal division of the California attorney general’s office. From 1972 to 1976, she worked as an attorney for the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. She cofounded the Lawyers Club of San Diego, which supported female attorneys in 1972. Schenk also founded the first California bank owned and operated by women in 1973.</p>

<p>Schenk dove into politics when she received a prestigious position as a White House Fellow in 1976. She subsequently worked as a special assistant to Vice Presidents Nelson A. Rockefeller and Walter F. Mondale. The White House experience landed her a place in California Governor Jerry Brown’s cabinet. She held the position of deputy secretary for the California department of business, transportation, and housing from 1977 until 1980. In 1980, Lynn Schenk became the first woman secretary of that department, serving for three years. After an unsuccessful campaign for San Diego County supervisor in 1984, she returned to private law practice. Schenk worked as the California co–chair for the presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis in 1988. From 1990 to 1993, she served as a commissioner and vice chair of the San Diego unified port district. In her role as commissioner she was responsible for overseeing San Diego Bay, where she spearheaded environmental protection programs.</p>

<p>Lynn Alice Schenk (born January 5, 1945) is an American politician and lawyer from California. A Democrat, she served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.</p>

<p>Schenk was born in 1945, in the Bronx, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. She attended public schools in the Bronx and Los Angeles, and graduated from Hamilton High School. She received her B.A. from U.C.L.A. in 1967 and her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1970. There were only three other women in her law class. Schenk did post-graduate study in international law at the London School of Economics.</p>

<p>In 1971, with two other female lawyers, Schenk broke the gender barrier at The Grant Grill in the downtown San Diego U. S. Grant Hotel. Women were prohibited during lunch, so a male friend made a reservation and the three women went in to eat, unescorted. They ordered mock turtle soup, a specialty not available in the hotel's other restaurants.</p>

<p>After trying to push them out the door, the staff seated them. The three continued to come back until a "No women before 3 p.m." sign was removed. The next year, she and other women formed the Lawyers Club of San Diego, which worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and on other women's rights issues.</p>