by Karl Kurtz
The death of former Governor Ann Richards in Texas occasioned a trivia question in our office: How many women governors have there been in American history? My boss, Bill Pound, and I spent five minutes making a list off of the tops of our heads and came up with 21 women in 17 states. We thought we were doing pretty well until we checked the Web site of our friends at the Center for American Women and Politics, which has the answer: 28 women in 21 states (plus one in Puerto Rico) have served as governor, beginning in 1925 with Nellie Tayloe Ross (pictured) in Wyoming who won a special election to succeed her late husband.
Just 15 days later than pioneering Wyoming Gov. Ross, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was elected as a surrogate for her husband, "Pa" Ferguson, who was ineligible for another term in Texas. Ma Ferguson is the source of a well-known political malapropism, "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"
The CAWP web site generates some other good trivia questions:
- Which state is the only one to have had three women governors?
- Who was the first woman governor elected in her own right?
- Who served the shortest tenure?
- Who was the first to defeat an incumbent?
Look these and other questions up for yourself on CAWP's web page above.
See Feb. 4, 2009 update.
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