Margaret Heckler

Margaret Mary Heckler (née O'Shaughnessy; June 21, 1931 – August 6, 2018) was an American politician and diplomat who represented Massachusetts's 10th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983. A member of the Republican Party, she also served as the 15th United States secretary of health and human services from 1983 to 1985, as well as United States ambassador to Ireland from 1986 to 1989.

She was born Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy in Flushing, New York. Her undergraduate studies began at Albertus Magnus in New Haven, Connecticut. She then studied abroad at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1952 and went on to graduate from Albertus Magnus College (B.A. 1953) and from Boston College Law School (LL.B. 1956). She was the only woman in her law school class. She was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. She was an editor of the Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law.

From 1963 to 1967, Heckler was the first woman to serve on the governor's council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and 1968, and was elected as a Republican from the 90th to the 97th Congresses (January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1983).^{[citation needed]}

Heckler received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University in 1975.^{[citation needed]}

In 1967, when she was first elected, Heckler was one of only 11 women in Congress. She supported moderate to liberal policies favored by voters in her state of Massachusetts. Heckler voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In 1972 she co-sponsored Title IX, which required that no person, on the basis of sex, could be discriminated against under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. In 1974, as a member of the Banking and Currency Committee, Heckler authored the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, giving women the right to seek credit in their own names for the first time in American history. In 1977, she launched and co-founded the Congresswoman's Caucus, a bipartisan group of 14 members focused on equality for women in Social Security, tax laws, and related areas. It was the first all-women's caucus in the Congress. Heckler was also an outspoken advocate for and co-sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment. At the Republican National Convention in 1980, Heckler urged then presidential nominee Ronald Reagan to put the first woman on the Supreme Court. Heckler had a fierce passion for women's equality.

In Massachusetts, she was noted for building an especially-effective network of constituent services that allowed her to triumph through several re-election bids in an overwhelmingly-Democratic state. In the capital, Heckler was noted as a socialite with a penchant for high fashion.

In the House, she served on the Banking and Currency Committee (1968-1974) and served as ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee (1967–1982). She also served on the Agriculture Committee (1975-1980) and the Joint Economic Committee (1975-1982).

Heckler won her first term in 1966 by defeating 42-year incumbent Republican Joseph W. Martin Jr., in the primary. Martin, then 82, had previously served as Speaker of the House and was 46 years older than Heckler. She was the first woman representative to Congress from Massachusetts elected in her own right. Heckler won the subsequent general election with just 51 percent of the vote. She went on to be re-elected seven more times.