"Backwards and in High Heels"

"Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels." That's what Gov. Ann Richards said, and as Texas' second female Governor, she danced into the national spotlight and into our hearts. Richards, who never met a stereotype she could conquer, routinely bucked conventional wisdom. She did not begin her political career until she was in her forties, and once she did aimed for the Governor's mansion. Once there, she opened the doors of power not only to women but to minorities.

Like so many women, Richards did not limit her efforts to help women get elected to her own campaign, instead helping to found "Annie's List" in Texas. Like Georgia's WIN List, Annie's List is a group that helps qualified pro-choice democratic women get elected. Recognizing that helping women get elected to public office is this generation's equivalent of the suffrage movement of the early twentieth century, Ann Richards was a trailblazer who never let them see her sweat, a role model who opened the door to political office to countless other women, and an women who seemed to have a knack for saying exactly what she thought, and getting by with it. Godspeed, Gov. Richards.

Sphere: Related Content