Nancy Kassebaum became a senator in 1978, the 14th woman to serve in the Senate.
The daughter of Alfred Landon, the Republican presidential candidate in 1936, Kassebaum
swept both the 1978 Republican primary and the general election, despite having little
political experience, and brought to the Senate a history of political activism and tireless energy. During her nearly two decades in the Senate, Kassebaum became the first woman to chair a current standing committee in the Senate, the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, chaired the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, and championed the causes of arms control and budget deficit reduction. Easily reelected in 1984 and again in 1990, she retired from the Senate in 1997.
