Something that isn’t often recognized in the history of feminism is the role that women with conservative values played in advancing our progression towards women’s rights and political participation. This list contains only seven such individuals, whose contributions brought about remarkable developments in their respective eras and home countries. May they serve as inspiration for those of us following in their footsteps, but may they also remind us of the work to be done in diversifying and lengthening the list in our time. While not all of these women were directly involved in conservative politics, they all represent conservative values and sensibilities within the context of their lifetimes and speak to the important role that all perspectives play in making society more inclusive. 

1. Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) United States

Luce’s impressive career spanned seven decades and included nearly as many professional interests: journalism, politics, theatre, diplomacy, and intelligence. Over those years and throughout her different roles, she maintained a complex and evolving relationship with feminism, which itself underwent a dramatic transformation over that period. In order to better understand Luce’s feminism as a conservative woman, I would recommend some further reading: http://anamnesisjournal.com/2017/04/clare-boothe-luce-american-feminism/ Ultimately, she chose to establish a legacy that would benefit current and future generations of women with talent and ambition in areas where they continue to be severely underrepresented—science, mathematics and engineering. Her bequest created a program that is the single largest private source of funding for women in those fields. “The purpose of the Clare Boothe Luce Fund shall be to encourage women to enter, study, graduate, and teach” in science, engineering, and mathematics. “I select such fields of endeavor in recognition that women today have already entered the fields of medicine, law, business and the arts, and in order to encourage more women to enter the fields of science.”— Clare Boothe Luce, 1987

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: n 1942, Luce won a Republican seat in the United States House of Representatives representing Fairfield County, Connecticut, the 4th Congressional District. She based her platform on three goals: “One, to win the war. Two, to prosecute that war as loyally and effectively as we can as Republicans. Three, to bring about a better world and a durable peace, with special attention to post-war security and employment here at home.” She took up the seat formerly held by her late stepfather, Dr. Albert Austin. An outspoken critic of Roosevelt’s foreign policy, Luce was supported by isolationists and conservatives in Congress, and she was appointed early to the prestigious House Military Affairs Committee. Luce became the first American woman to represent her country to a major world power when she was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 1953 after her impressive campaign on behalf of Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election. Later, she became the first female member of Congress to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded by President Reagan in 1983).

2. Maureen McTeer (1952-) Canada

Born in Ottawa, McTeer had a childhood dream of a prestigious hockey career. Her commitment to feminism began when her father reminded her that girls do not play in the NHL, and she switched her focus to academics and debating skills. These earned her a scholarship to the University of Ottawa, where she served as features editor for the student newspaper The Fulcrum and was a member of both the English debate team and the Progressive Conservative Campus Club while earning both an undergraduate and a law degree. She worked as a staffer in Progressive Conservative MP Joe Clark’s office before marrying him in 1973. In the 1988 federal election, she ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the riding of Carleton-Gloucester, hoping to get elected alongside her husband, but was not successful despite the party’s re-election victory. She is a specialist in medical law, and for a while was a member of the Royal Commission on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: When Joe Clark became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1976, McTeer became controversial – feminism still being a relatively new social phenomenon at that time – for keeping her own surname and maintaining her own career. As of 2017, McTeer remains the only wife of a Canadian prime minister not to assume any part of her husband’s surname, and she remains the only spouse of a former Canadian Prime Minister to have run for political office herself.

3. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002) The United Kingdom

While not a conservative in the political sense, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother represents conservatism as a figure of the British nobility. As the wife of Albert, Duke of York and future King George VI, she and their daughters came to embody traditional ideas of family and public service even before their assumption of the throne. Her own political opinions were rarely disclosed, but a letter she wrote in 1947 described defeated Labour Party leader Clement Attlee’s “high hopes of a socialist heaven on earth” as fading and presumably describes those who voted for him as “poor people, so many half-educated and bemused. I do love them.” Elizabeth was well known for her dry witticisms. Once, after being advised by a Conservative Minister in the 1970s not to employ homosexuals, the Queen Mother observed that without them, “we’d have to go self-service.” Her indomitable spirit and personal charm caused her to be regarded as one of the most popular members of the royal family and helped to stabilise the popularity of the monarchy as a whole.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Elizabeth was also known to have a tenacious streak and to adhere strongly to her principles. Once, at an official luncheon held in her honour where she was seated with Maureen McTeer, the other women at the table teased McTeer by addressing her always as “Mrs. Clark”. The Queen Mother, however, did not, and after McTeer escorted the Queen Mother to her car, the latter said “Don’t be bothered by criticism,” and left as parting words: “Good Luck … Ms. McTeer.”

4. Thelma Florence Bate (1904-1984) Australia

From a young age, Bate fostered an appreciation for the value of education under the guidance of her stepfather. After graduating from the University of Sydney with a BA in 1928, she taught at a grammar school and traveled abroad with her parents. Following that, she married Richard Falkner Harvey, a grazier, and they settled on his property near Ivanhoe, where she was introduced to the Country Women’s Association of New South Wales. After the death of her husband in 1946, Bate was encouraged by members of the Country Party to stand as that party’s candidate in the 1947 State election for the Labor-held seat of Dubbo, but she was later defeated. A skilled and forceful debater, she developed a taste for politics. In1949, she married Kenneth Kirkby, who was a member of the Country Party State executive, and they later divorced. Thelma Kirkby ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1951 and 1953 on the combined ticket of the Liberal and Country parties. In December 1953 she was defeated in a by-election for the Federal seat of Gwydir, when the Country Party endorsed two candidates. For over forty years, she was an active member of the Country Women’s Association, serving as honorary secretary (1957-59), and, as Thelma Bate, president (1959-62). In 1958, she had married Henry Jefferson Percival (Jeff) Bate, long-standing Liberal member for the Federal seat of Macarthur and dairy farmer whom she had met in conservative political circles. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1968. She was appointed CBE in 1969.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Bate was the first female candidate to be endorsed by the Country Party. She made a considerable contribution to postwar Australia through organisations such as the Free Kindergarten movement, the Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Air Ambulance Service (for which she was awarded life membership). A staunch anti-communist, she was secretary-general of the Australian Women’s Movement Against Socialisation in the late 1940s. In 1953 she was the New South Wales representative to the Associated Country Women of the World conference, held in Toronto. In the 1950s, as part of these international women’s networks, she was also involved in the Pan Pacific Women’s Association (from 1955 Pan-Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association of Australia), including periods as national and international treasurer. During the Vietnam War, she organised a group that provided ‘rest and recreation’ for American servicemen in Sydney. She served as a committee member of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign. In 1975 she was the New South Wales representative on the United Nations Association of Australia International Women’s Year national committee. Bate was probably best known for her passionate, and often defiant, stance on the inclusion of Aboriginal women in the CWA organisation and its branches. `When we say we work for country women and children, where do we draw the colour line?’, she asked CWA members as branches with mainly Aboriginal membership opened at Toomelah, Burnt Bridge-Green Hills and Copmanhurst-Baryulgil from 1956. In the 1960s she was treasurer of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs. She chaired the women’s committee that, in partnership with Rotary, helped to establish International House at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. (Australian Dictionary of Biography)

5. Catherine Beecher (1800-1878) United States

Born into a prominent New York family headed by Presbyterian minister Dr. Lyman Beecher, she was educated at the Litchfield Female Academy in Connecticut after the family relocated there in 1809. Beecher thrived there under the instruction of Sarah Peirce, who imparted revolutionary ideas regarding the intellectual equality of men and women, but was forced to leave at age 16 following the death of her mother. She returned to manage the domestic duties of her father’s household, caring for her numerous siblings until her father remarried the following year. Catherine remained at home for another year before taking a teaching job in New London, Connecticut in 1818. While still in her teens, Catherine wrote several poems and ballads that were circulated among local literary circles. She also had poems published in the Christian Spectator under the signature C.D.D. After the tragic death of her fiancé in 1822, she vowed to concentrate her energies to what would become her passion: the education of women. Along with her sister Mary, Catherine founded a school for girls in Hartford, Connecticut in 1823 which was centred on training women to become mothers and teachers. In the early 1830s, Beecher became more interested in the roles her female students would play in society. Running a home and raising a family were important, she stated, but women should also be given more responsibility and respect outside the home. She believed that teaching was the perfect profession – it allowed women to be independent and influential in their community, and it was acceptably feminine.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling:  Beecher was a pioneer in physical education for females. Believing that girls ruined their health with tight corsets, poor diets and culturally-imposed fragility, she introduced calisthenics into the curriculum. She also wrote textbooks used in her school and in those that emulated it, and was involved in the production of the famous McGuffey readers, the first nationally adopted elementary school textbooks. In addition to these, she published a number of books providing encouragement and guidance for domestic life, which constituted a source of household knowledge that had not existed before. Her most famous work, the Treatise on Domestic Economy (1843), earned her national celebrity and incorporated her personal philosophies on the essential role that women played in the home, and thus society, as well as financial thrift. The work also included some of the earliest plans for single storey homes that became popular as cities expanded outward. (womenhistoryblog)

6. Adelaide Hunter Hoodless (1857-1910) Canada

Born on a farm in St. George, Canada West (now Ontario) and the youngest of 12 children, she was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and then the Brantford Ladies’ College before marrying furniture manufacturing heir John Hoodless in 1881. The marriage instantly elevated her from farm girl to Victorian socialite, but personal tragedy proved an even greater catalyst for drastic change. In 1889, her infant son John Harold died at the age of 14 months after an illness that was attributed to the questionable practices in dairy production at that time. Following that, Adelaide resolved to ensure that women had the knowledge to prevent similar tragedies and improve education for new mothers. In January 1897, the Minister of Education asked Adelaide to write a textbook for Domestic Science courses, and in 1898 she published a book, Public School Domestic Science. In addition to these projects, Adelaide travelled all over the province, speaking on the subject of domestic science. She was a lively and engaging speaker: “Is it of greater importance that a farmer should know more about the scientific care of his sheep and cattle, than a farmer’s wife should know how to care for her family?”

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Adelaide became the second president of the Hamilton branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), a role she used to work towards the establishment of domestic science education, and taught classes in domestic science (home economics). She is also credited with being the founder of the Canadian National YWCA in 1895. Mr. Erland Lee, of Stoney Creek, heard Adelaide speak, and her message resonated with him. He asked Adelaide to speak at his Farmer’s Institute Ladies Night meeting, on Feb 12th 1897. When she spoke that night, she suggested forming a group with a purpose to broaden the knowledge of domestic science and agriculture as well as to socialize. Adelaide returned one week later to find 101 women in attendance. This group was to become the first branch of the Women’s Institute, with Adelaide as honorary president. Within a decade more than 500 branches been organized across Canada. Adelaide is credited as a co-founder of the Women’s Institutes, the National Council of Women, the Victorian Order of Nurses and the YWCA in Canada. She was a major force behind the formation of three faculties of Household Science. All of her accomplishments have had a profound and long-lasting effect on Canadian society, and all of these organizations are still in existence today.

7. Edith Cowan (1861-1932) Australia

Born on a sheep station near Geraldton, West Australia, she had a troubled childhood and became an orphan at the age of 7. While living with her grandmother, she attended the school of Canon Sweeting, a former headmaster of Bishop Hale’s School, where she developed a lifelong passion for education and literacy. She became involved in social issues and injustices in the legal system, especially in relation to women and children. After the turn of the century, she turned her eye to welfare issues. She was particularly concerned with women’s health and the welfare of disadvantaged groups, such as disadvantaged children and prostitutes. She became extraordinarily active in women’s organisations and welfare organisations, serving on numerous committees. In 1921, Western Australia passed legislation allowing women to stand for parliament. At the age of 59, she stood as the Nationalist candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of West Perth because she felt that domestic and social issues were not being given enough attention. She won a surprise victory, ironically defeating the Attorney General, Thomas Draper, who had introduced the legislation that enabled her to stand.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: In 1894, Edith helped found the Karrakatta Club, a group in which women “educated themselves for the kind of life they believed they ought to be able to take”. In time, she became the club’s president. The Karrakatta Club became involved in the campaign for women’s suffrage, successfully gaining the vote for women in 1899. The building of Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in 1916 was largely a result of her efforts. She helped form the Women’s Service Guilds in 1909 and was a co-founder of the Western Australia’s National Council of Women, serving as president from 1913 to 1921 and vice-president until her death. In 1920, she became one of the first female Justices of the Peace. During World War I, she collected food and clothing for soldiers at the front and coordinated efforts to care for returned soldiers. She became chairperson of the Red Cross Appeal Committee and was rewarded when, in 1920, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In her final years, she was an Australian delegate to the 1925 International Conference of Women held in the United States. She helped to found the Royal Western Australian Historical Society in 1926 and assisted in the planning of Western Australia’s 1929 Centenary celebrations. Cowan was the first woman to be elected to Australian parliament. She championed women’s rights in parliament, pushing through legislation which allowed women to be involved in the legal profession. She succeeded in placing mothers in an equal position with fathers when their children died without having made a will and was one of the first to promote sex education in schools.