Pauline Menes (1924–2009) served in the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

for 40 years. In the 1970s she co-founded the Maryland Women's Legislative Caucus, the first caucus of its kind in the United States; founded the Women's Network of the

National Conference of State Legislatures The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), established in 1975, is a "nonpartisan public officials' association composed of sitting state legislators" from the states, territories and commonwealths of the United States. Background ...

; and was the first woman to serve on the state Judiciary Committee. Over the years she helped pass more than 2,000 bills and policy changes. She was inducted into the

Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in 2008.

Early life and education

She was born in New York City in 1904 and attended New York public schools. She studied business economics and geography at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, graduating with a B. A. degree in 1945. After college she moved to Washington, D.C., to take a wartime job as an economist for the Office of the

Quartermaster General of the United States Army The Quartermaster General of the United States Army is a general officer who is responsible for the Quartermaster Corps (United States Army), Quartermaster Corps, the Quartermaster branch of the United States Army, U.S. Army. The Quartermaster G ...

. From 1949 to 1950, she worked as a geographer for the

Army Map Service The Army Map Service (AMS) was the military cartography, cartographic agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1941 to 1968, subordinated to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On September 1, 1968, the AMS was redesignated th ...

Political career

Prince George's county

Menes first became involved in politics in 1953, when she helped organize a voter registration drive in the University Hills area of

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

. She remained active in county politics, and in 1962 ran for county Register of Wills, losing the election by a hundred votes. She served as County Board of Elections Chief Clerk in 1963 and Secretary for the Democratic Steering Committee in 1966. In the mid-1960s she also worked as a substitute teacher in county public high schools.

House of Delegates

She first won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966, and was continually reelected until she retired in 2007. She represented the 21st District, a section of northern Prince George's County which included College Park, Beltsville, and

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

. During her tenure she focused on education, healthcare, criminal justice, aging, the arts, and women's issues, helping to pass over 2,000 bills and policy changes. During her first term she was appointed to her first leadership position by Governor

Spiro Agnew Spiro Theodore Agnew (; November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. ...

. As chair of the Commission on the Public Library Laws, she organized legislation to improve the state's library system. In 1971, Menes was the subject of a notorious joke by

Thomas Hunter Lowe Thomas Hunter Lowe (January 8, 1928 – June 13, 1984) was Judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals (1973–1984), Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates (1969–1973), and Delegate to the Maryland General Assembly (1958–1973). The D ...

, then the

Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates The speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates presides as speaker over the House of Delegates in the state of Maryland in the United States. List of speakers See also * List of Maryland General Assemblies Footnotes References Mar ...

. At the time, she was one of only eleven female lawmakers in Maryland. The House building in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

, did not have a women's restroom; the women had to walk across a crowded concourse to use a public restroom. The delay was serious enough to cause women lawmakers to miss an occasional vote. After Menes complained, Lowe appointed her "chairman" of the women's restroom committee and, in front of all the delegates, presented her with a fur-covered toilet seat. Menes later claimed the incident as a victory of sorts, noting that it was the first time a woman had appeared on the rostrum. The following year she co-founded the Maryland women's legislative caucus, notably the first of its kind in the United States, and served as its president until 1979. The women got their own restroom in 1973. In the mid-1970s, she worked to change a state law that prohibited a woman from filing a civil lawsuit against her husband. She said at the time that the changes would "go a long way to helping Maryland women protect themselves...Just the threat of financial responsibility will stay many a husband's hand." She successfully sponsored bills to require

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

testing of prisoners, create

needle-exchange programs A needle and syringe programme (NSP), also known as needle exchange program (NEP), is a social service that allows injection drug users (IDUs) to obtain clean and unused hypodermic needles and associated paraphernalia at little or no cost. It i ...

, and require medical personnel, teachers, and social workers to report suspected child abuse. Menes was active in many committees and advisory boards. She founded the Women's Network of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in 1977 and served as its president until 1979. She led the Maryland delegation to the

National Women's Conference The National Women's Conference of 1977 was a four-day event during November 18–21, 1977, as organized by the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. The conference drew around 2,000 delegates along with 15,000-20, ...

in 1977 and served as president of the National Order of Women Legislators from 1979 to 1980. In 1979 she became the first female member of the state Judiciary Committee, on which she served until the end of her career. She chaired the Special Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse from 1987 to 2006. At various times she was a member of the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, the Legislative Policy Committee, the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, the Joint Oversight Committee on Corrections, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Maryland Commission on Aging, and the Prince George's County Domestic Violence Task Force, among others. During her last few years in office she served as Maryland's House parliamentarian.

Awards

Ann London Scott Ann London Scott (July 29, 1929 – February 17, 1975) was an American feminist. She founded the Buffalo chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). As legislative vice president of the national organization in the early 1970s, she led ...

Award for Legislative Excellence, Maryland

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

, 1976 * International Women's Year Award, Prince George's County International Women's Year Commission, 1977 * Woman of the Year award, College Park Business and Professional Women's Association, 1978 * Hunter College Hall of Fame, 1986 * Prince George's County's Women's Hall of Fame, 1989 * Annual MNADV Award, Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, 1995 * Dewitt Award, Maryland Correctional Administrators Association, 2001 * Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, 2008

Personal life

She married Melvin Menes on September 1, 1946. The couple met at the Office of the Quartermaster General, where she trained him as her replacement. They had three daughters. She died of pneumonia at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, on May 16, 2009. She was buried at the King David Memorial Gardens in Falls Church, Virginia.