Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues

McCarthy, Carolyn (b. 1944)

Democrat Carolyn McCarthy of New York served in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 1997 to January 3, 2015. A tragedy launched her political activism. Her husband was killed and her son was injured in the 1993 Long Island Railroad massacre. McCarthy began a public campaign against gun violence, speaking around the country on the causes of violence. In 1994, she asked her congressman to oppose efforts to repeal the ban on assault weapons, but he refused her pleas and supported the repeal. McCarthy challenged him in the next election and won. She believes that providing children with a good education, creating safe and drug-free schools, reducing drug use, creating opportunities to attend college, and creating more job opportunities will reduce violence. “Like cars, food, medicine and many other consumer products, gun ownership should be subject to safety regulations to protect innocent Americans,” she said. She worked for what she called a “holistic” approach that ranged from funding “firearm safety and regulation as well as counseling, after school programs, and the mental health and juvenile justice systems.”

Having had personal experience with dyslexia as a child, McCarthy worked to obtain increased funding for children with learning disabilities. In addition, Congresswoman McCarthy supported health care reform, environmental protection, assistance for crime victims, and tax cuts for working families.

She was effective in other areas. Following the economic problems in 2008, McCarthy was instrumental in passing Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law Congresswoman McCarthy’s bill for the Civil Rights Oral History Project.

McCarthy announced her retirement in 2013 and did not run in 2014.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, McCarthy received her degree in licensed practical nursing from Glen Cove Nursing School in 1964. She was a nurse for more than 30 years.

See also: Congress, Women in

References: Congressional Quarterly, Politics in America 1998 (1997), Politics in America 2006 (2005); “Carolyn McCarthy,” http://carolynmccarthy.house.gov/biography (accessed July 27, 2012); “Carolyn McCarthy,” https://history.house.gov (accessed May 3, 2019)

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"McCarthy, Carolyn (b. 1944)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, edited by Suzanne O’Dea, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0609.
APA 7th
McCarthy, Carolyn (b. 1944). From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, In S. O’Dea (Ed.), Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0609.
CMOS 17th
"McCarthy, Carolyn (b. 1944)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, Edited by Suzanne O’Dea. Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0609.