Passage IV

Voice of the People

[1]

Harriett Woods did not plan to be a politician, but in 1984 she was elected lieutenant governor of Missouri. Her first job had been as a newspaper reporter she had moved to St. Louis to write for the Globe-Democrat, which shut down years ago. In 1953 she was to marry a fellow reporter and left the newspaper to raise their children.

[2]

Interestingly, her children's needs prompted Woods's first political action. Each afternoon, Woods put her babies in bed for their naps, a time she cherished for her own reading and personal literary scholarship. Each afternoon, trucks drove over a loose utility-hole cover, and the clanking and clamorous noisemaking awoke the boys. Woods appealed on her city council to close the street to trucks, but the council stalled. She sought her neighbors' support by going door-to-door and gathering their signatures on a petition.

[3]

When Woods called a local television station to seek a writing job, she was asked to moderate a panel discussion on local politics. She became a regular moderator, a job that led to her becoming head of public affairs at another television station. She continued her grassroots politics, focusing on the fight for fair housing. (53) As a result of her success to bring community members into the legislative process, Woods was asked to fill a vacant seat on the city council. This was the start of her political career and led to her election as a state senator in 1976. Then she became the first woman in Missouri history, to hold a statewide office when she was elected lieutenant governor.

[4]

Although she narrowly lost bids for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and 1986, Woods's campaigns earned their national recognition. Because of Woods's history of public outreach and community partnership, she was named president of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization that seeks to bring women into the political process. After she retired, Woods wrote Stepping Up to Power, a book about her political life, which all began when she asked her neighbors how they wanted to be governed.