Young women leaders

On March 18, nearly 100 of Maine’s young women leaders will enter the State House to learn about women’s role in state government, develop their political skills and envision themselves as leaders in their communities. Girls in grades seven and eight will arrive from Van Buren, Swans Island, Newport and beyond to participate in Girls’ Day at the State House.

This event, now in its eighth year, was created in connection with National Women’s History Month as an opportunity for young women to see how the strides women have made in the political process, and engage them as active participants for the future.

It’s true that the distance come is great. When the girls look around the halls of the Legislature, they will see many women in positions of influence. For example, Senate President Beverly Daggett and Senate Majority Leader Sharon Treat have demonstrated great leadership in their respective positions. Many of the girls will job shadow their own female representatives. They will learn about Maine’s first woman Speaker of the House, Libby Mitchell, and the great contributions women such as Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have made to the as representatives to Congress, and the pioneering efforts of Margaret Chase Smith and the women who came after her.

This month, they will be fortunate to see more images than usual of powerful women. A Robert Shetterly exhibition is drawing attention to women activists “who speak the truth.” Our hope is that when young women see and hear about these impressive women during Girls’ Day, they will think “I can do that, too!”

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But here’s what they won’t see. Although Maine ranks among the highest – 17th in the country – for the percentage of women serving in the state legislature, that number has actually decreased over the past few years. Representation was at an all time high in 1991, when the legislature was 33 percent women. Now women make up only 27 percent women in the Legislature. There are 13 women senators out of a total of 35 and 37 women representatives out of 151.

Unfortunately, nine women leaders will be prevented from running for office this year due to term limits. The House of Representatives will lose the valuable insights and experience of Sen. Daggett and Sens. Mary Cathcart, Betty Lou Mitchell, Peggy Pendleton, and Sharon Treat. Outgoing house members include Representative Rosita Gagne-Friel, Linda Rogers McKee, Julie Ann O’Brien and Lois Snowe-Mello. Their departure leaves a vacuum for new women leaders to fill. But where will those women come from? While both parties actively recruit women to run, it remains to be seen whether enough women are in the pipeline for their efforts to be successful.

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The fact is, women face many barriers to elected office, and most of these barriers to political leadership are not new. The challenge of running for office while caring for family members can be difficult, as are the competing demands of motherhood and legislative office. Long hours, low pay and challenges around child care are familiar to all but have only heightened over time. With 75 percent of women now in the work force, the tension between earning a paycheck, caring for family, and public service can be difficult to resolve.

Moreover, while term limits have opened more seats to women, limits pose an added challenge to potential women leaders. Because of term limits, women have a relatively short period of time to raise their own visibility in order to attain positions of legislative leadership.

That’s why the work of Girls’ Day at the State House and the other Maine Women’s Policy Center leadership and training programs are so important. Without active, engaged women ready to enter the “pipeline to power’ as school, community and municipal leaders, our numbers and influence in the state legislature will only decline. It is women’s representation in the legislature which has served to bring many problems facing women to the forefront that would otherwise be unresolved such as the need for employment supports for survivors of assault and domestic violence, time off of work to care for ill family members, and supports for a growing and changing work force that more fully represents women.

The time is now to consider the political leadership of the future. Programs to train and recruit women candidates must be expanded. Women leaders need to identify and groom likely successors. And we at the Maine Women’s Policy Center know that some of those hundred young women entering the halls of the State House this Thursday will be those political leaders of the future.

Sarah Standiford is executive director of the Maine Women’s Policy Center in Augusta.