Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Today is Election Day here in the United States which got me thinking about the fact that we are one of the few Western nations that has never had a female head of state.   In our 200+ years as a nation, we have had two women run for Vice President, three female Secretaries of State, and one female Speaker of the House.   Yet we still haven’t managed to have a female at the top of the ticket, although we’ve come close.   Here is just salute to some of the female Heads of State in recent history (check out this link on Wikipedia for the complete list of current and former Female Heads of State). Some of these women were the first female heads of state in their countries.   Some came from political dynasties but all fought hard-won elections to become the head of State in their countries.   What surprised me was how many Latin American countries have female Presidents.   Yes, those macho countries have female Presidents!   Here’s hoping that we in th...

Politics is a dirty game, and if you're a woman it’s even twice as rough. Women in politics tend to be held to higher standards then men; they have to be tougher without seeming to lose their femininity. They are judged not only on the issues, but how they look. While their opponents may keep on the kid gloves against them, their supporters can come out swinging. Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980) found that out the hard way when she ran for the United States Senate in California against future Vice-President & President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon. The year was 1950, World War II had been over for five years, and Harry Truman was President, having been elected in his own right in 1948. It was the beginning of the post-war baby boom, but there was a storm cloud that was hanging over the country, and that was the threat of communism. The Soviets who had been allies during the War were now being looked at as the enemy. Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin has just s...

January 2009 brings a new administration to our nation's capitol. To celebrate, Scandalous Women will be bringing you all the women who made the capitol so scandalous. Look for posts on FDR and his women, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Edith Galt Wilson, Mary Todd Lincoln, and more. Also, head on over to Edwardian Promenade for a behind the scenes look at Washington, DC during the Edwardian era.

In the wake of the recent revelations that the now former Governor of New York, Elliot Spitzer, had been having relations for years with a series of high class call girls, it made me think of other sex scandals, and who does a sex scandal better than the British? Particularly when it involves politics. Charles Stewart Parnell and Kitty O'Shea, Jeffrey Archer, but the biggest sex scandal ever in Britain was the Profumo Affair. By the time the dust cleared, the Prime Minister had resigned due to 'ill-health' and the Labour party was swept into office with Harold Wilson as its leader and the new Prime Minister. Let's go back into time shall we to 1963. Long before the swinging 60's were in force, and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones launched the British invasion, England was still recovering from the devastation it suffered during WWII. Rationing had only ended in the late 1950's. King George VI had died and his daughter Elizabeth II was celebrating her tenth yea...