On this day in 1914, Elly Peterson was born—becoming the first woman to lead a major Michigan political party and a pioneer for women in politics.
TRANSCRIPT
On this day in 1914, Elly Peterson was born. She was the first woman in Michigan to chair a major political party. In 1964, at the urging of then-Governor George Romney, she ran for Michigan’s seat in the U.S. Senate, but lost. However, the following year, Peterson became the first woman to serve as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. When Peterson retired in 1970 as assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee, David Broder of the Washington Post wrote that her abilities would have earned her the national chairmanship were it not for the unwritten sex barrier that both parties have erected around that job. During the 1970s, though, unhappy with her party’s pushback against the Equal Rights Amendment and feminism, she became an independent. For her efforts in breaking the glass ceiling in Michigan, in 1984, Elly Peterson was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
And that is your Michigan Minute.