U. S. politician revels in breaking more barriers
Among her achievements, Duckworth will now be first senator to give birth while in office
WASHINGTON — Breaking down barriers is nothing new for U. S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and that’s the way she likes it.
The decorated Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down is an Asian-American woman in the mostly white, mostly male and very fusty Senate. And now, with a baby due in April, she’ll be the first senator to give birth while in office.
And so, along with her legislative and political goals, the Illinois Democrat is adding a new one: educating the tradition- bound Senate on creating a workplace that makes room for new moms.
“She’s been through things that you and I will probably never understand. So I’m sure for her ( having a baby) is in no way daunting,” said Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R- Wash., who had two children while serving in Congress. “She’s also someone who’s had a whole career in a male- dominated world.”
Duckworth, who turns 50 in March, says she appreciates the historic nature of her baby’s birth, as well as the fact that she represents working mothers and women having babies later in life. She fully expects to have to find a place to nurse in some quiet parlour off the Senate floor. But she says having a baby, a second daughter, is just one of many stops on the trail ahead.
“This is the last job that I want,” Duckworth said of the Illinois Senate seat once held by Barack Obama. The former president is one of several men she ticks off as mentors and role models. They include Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., former Sen. Bob Dole, R- Kan., and the late Democratic Sens. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Edward Kennedy — all backers of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which made the nation’s landscape a little easier to navigate.
Duckworth is already in the history books. She’s the first female amputee elected to Congress, the first Asian-American to represent Illinois in Washington and the first member of Congress born in Thailand. Her story of resilience and grit set her in the rare company of grievously injured veterans who later served in the Senate — Dole, a Second World War veteran, and John McCain, who was kept prisoner for more than five years in Vietnam.
“If you take gender out of it, it’s not that new,” said Duckworth, a year into her own Senate term.
But gender can’t be ignored as America reckons with sexual misconduct at home and in the workplace. The first area specifically set up for lactation opened in the Capitol only a dozen years ago. The House installed its first lavatory for women lawmakers in 2011. The Senate has had its own women’s restroom for 25 years.