When Margaret Heckler was sworn in on January 3, 1967, she was one of only 11 women in the House of Representatives, and the first to be elected to Congress from Massachusetts without succeeding her husband. Congratulatory letters from fellow Representatives soon flooded in, many of them addressed to “Mr. Heckler” or “Dear Sir.” In her first months in Congress, Heckler championed legislation to enforce congressional ethics. Her committee assignments were not her first choices, but her assignment to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee would prove to be the start of a 16-year commitment to fervently supporting the health and education of America’s veterans.

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Support for Veterans

Appointed to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee in 1967, Margaret Heckler joined the committee during the height of the Vietnam War. She grew concerned with the physical and mental health challenges faced by returning Vietnam veterans, and sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to increase disability payments, provide for readjustment counseling, and improve access to health care. Heckler was the lead sponsor of the Veteran Senior Citizen Health Care Act of 1979 and other veterans geriatric health legislation.

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In her role on the Subcommittee for Education and Training, Heckler also fought for expanded education and tuition benefits for veterans, supported employment training programs, and supported veterans’ preference in hiring for federal government jobs. Her committee work from 1967-1983 earned her enthusiastic support from veterans groups across the country and in Massachusetts. For much of her time in Congress, she was the only New England congressperson on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and from 1975-1983 she was the highest ranking Republican member on the committee.

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Agriculture Committee

In 1975, Margaret Heckler left the Banking and Currency Committee and joined the Agriculture Committee.Some saw this as a strange move, since most Representatives interested in serving on the committee were from states with large agricultural production. Heckler argued that urban and suburban districts also needed to be represented on the committee, and that she could advocate for her constituents in areas like food security, nutrition education and research, and food stamp benefits. During her time on the committee, she championed the benefits of gasohol for automobiles, and supported the alcohol fuels research at the U.S. Army Natick Research and Development Center in her district. She also supported legislation designed to increase access to nutrition information and the promotion of healthy diets.

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Equal Rights for Women

In addition to her committee work, Margaret Heckler was a tireless advocate for women’s rights throughout her career. As a female lawyer in the 1950s, she had experienced the discrimination faced by women entering certain professions. Once in Congress, she saw an opportunity to advance legislation in support of women and families. She was particularly interested in women’s economic rights, and fought for Social Security benefits for homemakers and widowed women. One of Heckler’s major Congressional achievements was the passage of the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibited discrimination in credit transactions on the basis of sex or marital status. She, along with hundreds of her colleagues, was bitterly disappointed when President Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, which would have provided federal funding for day care centers and, by extension, removed barriers to more women joining the workforce. Nixon cited the bill’s “family weakening implications” as one of his reasons for the veto, in a nod to the conservative wing of his party.

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Much of Heckler’s work in Congress was bipartisan, particularly when it came to women’s rights. She was instrumental in forming the Congresswomen’s Caucus (later the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues), and served as one of its first co-chairs with Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) in 1977. As a moderate Republican, she was a fervent champion of the Equal Rights Amendment, and worked within her own party to cultivate support for the measure. However, as her career progressed and as power shifted to the conservatives under Ronald Reagan, Heckler found decreasing support among her fellow Republicans for women’s rights issues, particularly the Equal Rights Amendment. After successes in 1972 and 1976, she lost the battle to maintain Republican party support of the ERA at the 1980 Convention. Her anti-abortion stance, while not a primary fixture of her political agenda, lost her the support of many women’s groups who had otherwise applauded her voting record. Still, Heckler’s legacy in the House is reflected in her moderate record, her refusal to toe the party line, and her commitment to women’s equality under the law.

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In 1982 Margaret Heckler faced her toughest re-election challenge in years. Redistricting after the 1980 Census combined her district with the 4th District, meaning Heckler had to run against another incumbent, Democrat Barney Frank, to retain her seat. Frank had served only one term in Congress, but was popular and had the support of the national Democratic establishment. Heckler’s position as a moderate Republican had always been an asset to her, but Frank’s campaign successfully tied her to Ronald Reagan and the national Republican party, whose policies were not as popular in Democratic-leaning Massachusetts. The race seemed close, but Heckler lost to Frank by wide margins on election day . After 16 years, Margaret Heckler, the highest ranking woman in the House, had lost her seat in Congress.