Woodhouse, Chase Going, 1890-1984

Chase Going Woodhouse (March 3, 1890 – December 12, 1984) was a prominent feminist leader, suffragist, and educator. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing the Second Congressional District of Connecticut, becoming the second Congresswoman from Connecticut, the first elected as a Democrat, and the first woman born outside the United States in either chamber of the U.S. Congress.

Born Chase Going to American parents in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she attended Science Hill School, Shelbyville, Kentucky before earning Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Economics from McGill University in 1912 and 1914, respectively. After graduating from McGill University, she began her career as a college professor and spent part of it as a well-known political figure in the women's suffrage movement and later in the Democratic Party of the State of Connecticut. While serving as a fellow in political economics at the University of Chicago, Chase Going met and eventually married a professor of government there, Edward Woodhouse.

In her early professional career, Woodhouse was a senior economist at the Bureau of Home Economics, United States Department of Agriculture, from 1926 to 1928. Shortly after moving to New London, Connecticut in 1934, Woodhouse registered to vote as a Democrat. In 1940, she was the first Democratic woman to be elected as Secretary of State for Connecticut, serving one term. She also served as chair of the New London, Democratic Town Committee in 1942 and 1943. During World War II Woodhouse was a consultant for the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel, War Manpower Commission, from 1942 to 1944. As a feminist leader, she became president of the Connecticut Federation of Democratic Women's Clubs, which is the oldest federation of Democratic Women's Clubs in the nation, from 1943 to 1948.

While teaching economics at Connecticut College, Woodhouse began her electoral campaign for the United States Congress. She was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-Ninth Congress and served from January 3, 1945 to January 3, 1947. While in office, she was a political activist for women's advancement in careers beyond education, focusing on combining motherhood and feminism. She ran for reelection to the Eightieth Congress in November 1946 but was defeated. While out of office, she resumed her women's advocacies. She became Executive Director of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), based in Washington, D.C., in 1947 and 1948. Democrats, like President Harry Truman believed Woodhouse was a valuable link to women voters and encouraged this appointment. Woodhouse then successfully run again and served in the Eighty-First Congress from January 3, 1949 to January 3, 1951, after defeating Horace-Seely Brown in 1948. She was also a visiting expert on the staff of General Lucius D. Clay, Allied Military Governor of Germany, in 1948. She was defeated for reelection to the Eighty-Second Congress in the November 1950 elections.

Woodhouse was appointed to the Banking and Currency Committee while serving in the United States Congress. She was special consultant to the Director of Price Stabilization, from 1951 to 1953. Woodhouse began serving as the director of the Auerbach Service Bureau for Connecticut Organizations in Hartford in 1954. She was also a member of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and served on the Connecticut Humanities Council. She served as a delegate to the Connecticut State Constitutional Convention in 1965. In 1967, she was chairman of the Governor's Committee on the Status of Women. She then served as a member of the Advisory Committee to the State Department of Community Affairs from 1967 until 1972. Woodhouse was also a member of Comprehensive Health Planning Council, the Steering Committee of the Connecticut Mental Health Planning Project, the Advisory Council to the Board of Mental Health, the Connecticut Humanities Council, and the State Commission of Housing and New Communities.

Woodhouse died in New Canaan, Connecticut.