Orchids in the Icebox:
The Story of Bertha Adkins and
Other Influential Women in the Eisenhower Administration
by Dr. Winifred G. Helmes,
$19.95, paperback, 356 pages
Published: November 2002
ISBN 1880849-38-0

OUT OF PRINT

The emergence of women as a political power was perhaps never more evident than in 1952, when armies of Republican women across the country delivered fifty-four percent of the vote to General Dwight Eisenhower to win the presidency of the United States. At the center of this effort was Bertha Adkins, Assistant Chairman of the Republican National Committee in charge of Woman's Affairs. A brilliant organizer and superb politician, Bertha Adkins worked with a network of Republican women around the country in motivating women to participate, and vote, in unprecedented numbers. In 1958, when she was appointed Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, she became the most senior woman in the Eisenhower administration, and the first woman to hold the post of Under Secretary in any department of government. She later went on to head the Federal Council on Aging in the Nixon administration. Charismatic and popular, Bertha Adkins worked with capable women on all levels - both Republican and Democratic - to advance the causes they felt were most important in the areas of education, welfare, aging, and women's rights. A persuasive and motivational speaker, her words ring as true today as they did then. Orchids in the Icebox is a primer for any woman who is concerned about the health of our political system, and a testimony to the continuing need for the organization and participation of women on every level of politics.