FILE – Pat Schroeder speaks to a reporter during an interview at the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 30, 1999. Schroeder, a former Colorado representative and pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File) 
FILE – Former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., left, and her husband, Jim, head to their seats to watch the inauguration ceremony for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Jan. 8, 2019, in Denver. Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Pool, File) 
FILE – President Bill Clinton introduces Rep. Pat Schroeder, of Colorado, during a ceremony honoring community heroes from flood-afflicted states in St. Louis, on Aug. 12, 1993. Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, has died at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File) 
FILE – Congresswomen Shirley Chisholm, D-N.Y., left, and Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., are pictured at a news conference in Washington on July 31, 1979. Schroeder, a former Colorado representative and pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, has died at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File) 
FILE – U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., sits on the porch outside her Capitol Hill headquarters in Denver on July 18, 1994. Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, has died at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/file/Joe Mahoney, File) 
FILE – Association of American Publishers President Pat Schroeder attends the AAP’s 2004 general annual meeting in Washington on Feb. 26, 2004. Schroeder, a former Colorado representative and pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died Monday night, March 13, 2023, at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. (AP Photo/Matthew Cavanaugh, File)
WASHINGTON | Former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, has died. She was 82.
Schroeder’s former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night at a hospital in Celebration, Florida, the city where she had been residing in recent years.
Schroeder took on the powerful elite with her rapier wit and antics for 24 years, shaking up stodgy government institutions by forcing them to acknowledge that women had a role in government.
Her unorthodox methods cost her important committee posts, but Schroeder said she wasn’t willing to join what she called “the good old boys’ club” just to score political points. Unafraid of embarrassing her congressional colleagues in public, she became an icon for the feminist movement.
President Joe Biden paid tribute in a statement Tuesday, saying: “On issue after issue, Pat stood up for basic fairness, sensible policy, and women’s equal humanity. The result was a legislative record that changed millions of women’s lives — and men’s lives — for the better.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, said, “Her courage and persistence leave behind an indelible legacy of progress and have inspired countless women in public service to follow in her footsteps.”
Schroeder was elected to Congress in Colorado in 1972 and became one of its most influential Democrats as she won easy reelection 11 times from her safe district in Denver. Despite her seniority, she was never appointed to head a committee.
Schroeder helped forge several Democratic majorities before deciding in 1997 it was time to leave. Her parting shot in 1998 was a book titled “24 Years of Housework … and the Place is Still a Mess. My Life in Politics,″ which chronicled her frustration with male domination and the slow pace of change in federal institutions.
In 1987, Schroeder tested the waters for the presidency, mounting a fundraising drive after fellow Coloradan Gary Hart pulled out of the race. She announced three months later that she would not run and said her “tears signify compassion, not weakness.” Her heart was not in it, she said, and she thought fundraising was demeaning.
She was the first woman on the House Armed Services Committee but was forced to share a chair with U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., the first African American, when committee chairman F. Edward Hebert, D-La., organized the panel. Schroeder said Hebert thought the committee was no place for a woman or an African American and they were each worth only half a seat.
Republicans were livid after Schroeder and others filed an ethics complaint over House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s televised college lecture series, charging that free cable time he received amounted to an illegal gift under House rules. Gingrich became the first speaker reprimanded by Congress. Gingrich said later he regretted not taking Schroeder and her colleagues more seriously.
Earlier, she had blasted Gingrich for suggesting women shouldn’t serve in combat because they could get infections from being in a ditch for 30 days. According to her official House biography, she once told Pentagon officials that if they were women, they would always be pregnant because they never said “no.″
Asked by one congressman how she could be a mother of two small children and a member of Congress at the same time, she replied, “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.”
It was Schroeder who branded President Ronald Reagan the Teflon president for his ability to avoid blame for major policy decisions, and the name stuck.
One of Schroeder’s biggest victories was the signing of a family leave bill in 1993, providing job protection for care of a newborn, a sick child or a parent.
“Pat Schroeder blazed the trail. Every woman in this house is walking in her footsteps,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who took over from Schroeder as Democratic chair of the bipartisan congressional caucus on women’s issues.
Schroeder said legislators spent too much attention on contributors and special interests. When House Republicans gathered on the U.S. Capitol steps to celebrate their first 100 days in power in 1994, she and several aides clambered to the building’s dome and hung a 15-foot red banner reading, “Sold.”
A pilot, Schroeder earned her way through Harvard Law School with her own flying service. Schroeder became a professor at Princeton University after leaving Congress but said politics was in her blood and she would continue working for candidates she supported.
For a while, she taught a graduate-level course titled “The Politics of Poverty.” She also headed the Association of American Publishers.
Schroeder continued working in politics after moving to Florida, going door to door, speaking to groups and mentoring candidates. She was politically active for issues and candidates across the country and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Among other activities she served on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Schroeder was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 30, 1940. She graduated from the University of Minnesota before earning her law degree in 1964. From 1964 to 1966, she was a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.
She is survived by her husband, James W. Schroeder, whom she married in 1962. Also surviving are their two children, Scott and Jamie, and her brother, Mike Scott, as well as four grandchildren.
THANK YOU, PAT SCHROEDER!
Had no idea that she was also a pilot!
Great phrases! (Did not know “Teflon President” was hers.)
What many people forget was how connected she was to the average person in her congressional district. When my Aurora state legislative district was placed in the First Congressional District I got to know Patty on a personal basis because she flew home almost every weekend and spent those weekends personally meeting people in her Congressional District. I would meet with her husband Jim at her local congressional district to wait for her to come in from Washington. She always took tine to meet with me as her “Aurora” state representative and from there we would try to outwork our respective districts. She always won our weekend constituent contact contests because she simply loved meeting her people (and had a much larger district to work). No other congressperson came home as often as she did and kept in touch with regular people. Also very few people know how much she valued serving all Coloradoans rather than stay in Washington and kiss up to the Washington crowd.
Every other Congressional and Senate district went to her local constituent office when they needed help for their constituents. Her entire local constituent office staff headed up by Kip Cheroutes was far superior in helping local people. So much so that other local congressional offices came to Kip and Pat’s local office when they had constituent requests. But Pat did not want credit for helping Coloradoans whether from her district or from other districts. Republican congressmen who publicly opposed her also privately asked for and and received her office’s help all the time.
Pat won all of her elections and faced no real opposition because so many people knew her on a personal basis. When Pat decided to leave Congress she told me it was because she did not want to engage in the unseemly business of constant fundraising and pleasing the Washington lobbyists. If more elected official were like Pat, no matter their political labels, we could find more common ground and more true service to the people that elected them. It was true that “When Pat Wins We Win!”
I would not want what she did in her career and have to explain it to God.