Ruth Baird Leavitt Owen Rohde, also known as Ruth Bryan Owen, (née Bryan; October 2, 1885 – July 26, 1954) was an American politician and diplomat who represented Florida’s 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1929 to 1933 and served as United States Envoy to Denmark from 1933 to 1936. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Florida and just the second woman ever elected to the House from the American South, after Alice Mary Robertson of Oklahoma. Owen became the first woman to earn a seat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.[2] A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman chief of mission at the minister rank in U.S. diplomatic history under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
