{"id":54076,"date":"2018-02-18T16:05:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T16:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/18\/duckworth-using-pregnancy-to-educate-male-dominated-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:43:18","slug":"duckworth-using-pregnancy-to-educate-male-dominated-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/02\/18\/duckworth-using-pregnancy-to-educate-male-dominated-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Duckworth using pregnancy to educate male-dominated Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Breaking down barriers is nothing new for Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and that\u2019s the way she likes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decorated Iraqi War veteran<\/a> who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down is an Asian-American woman in the mostly-white, mostly-male and very fusty Senate<\/a>. And now, with a baby due in April, she\u2019ll be the first senator to give birth while in office<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, along with her legislative and political goals, the Illinois Democrat is adding a new one: educating the tradition-bound Senate on creating a workplace that makes room for new moms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been through things that you and I will probably never understand. So I\u2019m sure for her (having a baby) is in no way daunting,\u201d said Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., who had two children while serving in Congress. \u201cShe\u2019s also someone who\u2019s had a whole career in a male-dominated world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duckworth, who turns 50 in March, says she appreciates the historic nature of her baby\u2019s birth, as well as the fact that she represents working mothers and women having babies later in life. She fully expects to have to find a place to nurse in some quiet parlor off the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she says having a baby, a second daughter, is just one of many stops on the trail ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the last job that I want,\u201d Duckworth said of the Illinois Senate seat once held by Barack Obama. The former president is one of several men she ticks off as mentors and role models. They include Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and the late Democratic Sens. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Edward Kennedy \u2014 all backers of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which made the nation\u2019s landscape a little easier to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., right, waits with an aide for the elevator on Capitol Hill, on Feb. 14, 2018, in Washington. Duckworth doesn’t blend in, and that’s the way she likes it. The decorated Iraqi War veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down is an Asian-American woman in the mostly-white, mostly-male and very fusty Senate. And now, with a baby due in April, the Illinois Democrat will be the first senator to give birth while in office. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But she\u2019s sees both problems with compliance and efforts to undermine the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She points to flaws in Chicago\u2019s mass transit system, for example, and in a ladies\u2019 room at a U.S. embassy overseas. And floating through Congress now is a bill designed to curb frivolous lawsuits under the ADA that Duckworth and others say weakens it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duckworth is already in the history books. She\u2019s the first female amputee elected to Congress, the first Asian-American to represent Illinois in Washington and the first member of Congress born in Thailand. Her story of resilience and grit set her in the rare company of grievously injured veterans who later served in the Senate \u2014 Dole, a World War II veteran, and John McCain, who was kept prisoner for more than five years in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you take gender out of it, it\u2019s not that new,\u201d said Duckworth, a year into her own Senate term.<\/p>\n\n\n\t