Many women feel they have to choose between having a family and having a career. Others struggle to find balance as they try to have it all. Some choose one path, only to find themselves unexpectedly thrust into another role. Alice Leopold never meant to be anything but a stay-at-home mom, but the simple choice to get involved in the Parent-Teacher Association at her sons’ school quickly led to her appointment to a federal directorship in the U.S. Department of Labor. Here’s how it happened.
Alice got married in 1931 at the age of 25. After completing a double major in English and Economics at Goucher, she worked as the personnel director of a department store for several years before marrying her husband, an ad executive. Less than 10% of women attended college in the late 1920s, and from 1920 to 1940 the average age of a bride held steady at 21, so by the time she tied the knot, Alice was already different from the other housewives in her quiet Connecticut suburb. But she was determined to put her career behind her and focus solely on raising her young sons.
But then her oldest son entered elementary school. Alice learned that there was no hot lunch program for the children, and she was outraged. She contacted the PTA, which in turn appointed her “hot lunch chairman.” She organized a group of mothers to cook large amounts of food every morning and carry it to the school in kettles every day at noon. The project gained widespread approval, and Alice was a shoo-in for the next president of the PTA.
Her appetite for public life whetted, Alice began working with the League of Women Voters, writing pamphlets to inspire women like herself to become more involved in politics. “I fell for my own propaganda about participation,” she later recalled. Her convictions about political participation led her to accept an invitation to join the Weston Town Committee of the Republican Party. From there, it was a short leap to the Republican nomination to the Connecticut General Assembly, an election she won in 1949, serving on the education and labor committees.
As a state assemblyperson, Leopold authored two important bills -- a minimum-wage bill and an equal-pay bill -- both of which passed in 1949. She served one term before being elected Connecticut’s Secretary of State and then, in a whirlwind of political fortune, ended up on the short list of “notable Republican women” for consideration as federal appointees under the Eisenhower administration. Alice got the nod to become the Director of the Women’s Bureau, answering directly to the Secretary of Labor, in November 1953.
So, in less than fifteen years, Alice Leopold went from being a stay-at-home mom to a federal bureaucrat, all because she cared about her kids’ nutrition. Her career grew up with her children, taking on more responsibility as they grew older, until she reached the top just as her youngest son was turning 18 and going to college. She served until 1961.
It's safe to say that, had she never married had children, Alice Leopold would likely have spent the rest of her life in HR at a department store. But because she cared about her children's school, she got involved in public life and ended up in a position to make policy that would impact several generations of working mothers all across the United States.
Are you a mom whose children shaped your career or helped you find a new one? Tell us about it in the comments!
Sources:
http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/college.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005061.html
http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/79/1/etd.pdf
1 comment:
what a great story. thanks!
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