Women's History Month - Senator Olympia J. Snowe

Senator Olympia J. Snowe - Elected to Congress in 1978. She was the youngest Republican woman to serve in Congress and the first Greek-American Woman woman in Congress.  In 1994 she was elected to the U.S. Senate becoming the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress. In 2001 Senator Snowe became the first Republican woman ever to secure a full-term seat on the most powerful of committee’s the Senate Finance Committee.

Senator Snowe also made history as the fourth female to ever serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She became the first woman Senator to chair the Subcommittee on Sea-power overseeing the Navy and Marine Corps.  She is a voice for women on issues related to women in military and shipbuilding.

Senator Snowe co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on women’s issues for ten years and helped establish the Office of women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health.  She also served as a member of the House Budget Committee: of House Foreign Affairs Committee (ranking Republican on the subcommittee on International Operations)

Senator Snowe has announced her intentions to leave the Senate at the end of her term.  The Senator’s reputation is that of an intelligent woman who is not controlled by political ideology.  Listening, learning and looking for real solutions is the way she approached issues. 

Senator Snow is leaving because of the dysfunction in our Federal Government. Click here for Washington Post Article