| Martha Griffiths Biography Martha Wright
Griffiths (1912-2003)
Women’s Rights Activist, Attorney, Lawmaker
Martha Wright
Griffiths was born on January 29, 1912 in Pierce City, Missouri. As
a young woman, she was inspired by the activism and leadership of
her paternal grandmother, Jeanette Hinds Wright, a leading advocate
for woman suffrage in Pierce City. She was a champion debater in
her public high school and continued on the debate team when she
went to the University of Missouri. She went to law school at the
University of Michigan and graduated in 1940 along with her husband,
Hicks Griffiths (making them the first married couple to graduate
from the law school).
As she worked to
establish her legal career, Griffiths experienced sex
discrimination. Although she and her husband had comparable records
and were hired for identical jobs at an insurance company, she was
paid less. Subsequently, she and her husband practiced law together
in their own firm, Griffiths & Griffiths.
Griffiths’ trailblazing career in politics began at the urging of a
Michigan woman who had fought for woman suffrage. Although Griffiths
lost her first race for the state legislature, in 1948, she ran
again and was elected to the Michigan state house of
representatives, one of only two women in that chamber from 1948 to
1952.
After serving on
the state bench for a brief period, she was elected to the United
States Congress in 1954, the first Democratic woman elected to the
Congress from Michigan. She was re-elected nine times and served
through 1974.
During Griffiths’
long career in the United States House of Representatives, she was a
tireless and effective advocate for the rights of women. Her
crowning legislative achievements were her successful advocacy for
the inclusion of women in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
passage of the Congress of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). As
originally introduced, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not include
sex discrimination in any of its provisions. Congresswoman Griffiths
led the fight to take seriously an amendment to the Act that would
prohibit sex discrimination in employment. She gave fiery speeches,
imploring her colleagues to support the amendment. The amendment
passed and the law – known as Title VII – has provided powerful
legal protection against sex discrimination in employment.
In 1970, Griffiths
filed a discharge petition to demand that the ERA, which had
anguished in a House committee for 47 years, be heard by the full
Congress. She worked to garner the 218 votes needed for this effort
by persistently and persuasively lobbying members in both parties
and securing help of then-Congressman Gerald Ford to garner the
final votes needed for passage. Following the successful discharge
petition, both the House and Senate voted for passage of the ERA,
setting the stage for ratification in the states, an effort that
fell three states short.
In 1972, Griffiths
continued her work on behalf of women’s rights by working to secure
the passage of Title IX, a law that protects against sex
discrimination in education.
After retiring from
Congress in 1974, Martha Griffiths continued her advocacy for the
passage of the ERA and served on several corporate boards. She
served on the National Commission for the Observance of
International Women’s Year and participated in the First National
Woman’s Conference in Houston, Texas in 1977.
In 1983, at age 70,
she returned to politics when she was elected the first female
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. She was reelected in 1986 and
served in this position until 1990.
Congresswoman
Griffiths died on April 22, 2003, at age 91.
Last update August 3, 2008 |
Nomination Process (