Alice Sanger: First Female White House Staffer January 2

Alice Sanger: First Female White House Staffer

Alice Sanger, stenographer to President Benjamin Harrison, is the first woman employed at The White House in an office position.

Her position included the transcription of documents and speeches and writing “all the president’s personal letters.”

She is pictured above (center back) among her male peers, all at work in the White House offices on the Second Floor.

Ms. Sanger’s annual salary was $1,600, and she was recognized by local newspapers as an able stenographer. In fact, The Evening Star wrote that she was “a living contradiction to the slander that a woman cannot keep a secret. She never betrayed a trust of any kind.”

Alice Sanger

Sanger had served as Harrison’s secretary and stenographer in Indianapolis prior to his inauguration, worked for his campaign during the election of 1888, and became an essential part of the White House staff.

She continued under President Harrison until his loss to Grover Cleveland in the election of 1892. Sanger then worked as a stenographer under President Cleveland until he transferred her to the Post Office Department; newspapers reported that “there is not enough work at the White House to justify continuance of the present force.”

It appears that Sanger continued to work for the Post Office Department throughout the 1930s, after setting a precedent for the employment of women in White House positions.

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