Lack of Women in Politics Starts in Local Offices
Originally published by Anna Wiest for the Daily Intern
Women will be underrepresented in federal politics as long as they remain underrepresented in state and local political offices, according to experts and women political leaders in the Valley.
The women’s suffrage movement guaranteeing women the right to vote may be 100 years in the past, but author and former California State Assemblymember Mary Chung Hayashi said women continue to face barriers when it comes to running for government positions, including school boards and city councils.
“The pipeline starts” locally, Hayashi said. “If we are going to get women into the White House, most likely they’re going to start in local and state legislature.”
Patricia Saylor, of Beavertown, has been involved in local and state politics for 50 years, running numerous campaigns and currently serving as a committee member of the state Republican Party, but has never sought office.
“I never had any desire. I like party politics and running campaigns,” she said.
However, Saylor has encouraged and supported other Valley women in seeking office, including state Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver and Union-Snyder President Judge Lori R. Hackenberg who is only the second woman to serve as a Court of Common Pleas judge in the 17th Judicial District.
“Women have different life experiences and provide a different perspective,” Saylor said of the importance of female voices in government.
“To quote (the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice) Ruth Bader Ginsberg, ‘Women belong in all places where decisions are made,’” Union County Commissioner Stacy Richards said. “In so many ways, women’s personal and collective experiences are often quite different from men’s. Therefore, what we consider when we problem-solve can be quite different. For our democracy to truly reflect the value of all of us requires inclusivity. Not just the hard-won right to vote in elections, but the ability to shape our laws and policies to reflect freedoms for all of us that affect our daily lives and the choices available to us.
“At every level of government, majority decisions determine laws and policies, large and small,” she said. “Ruth Bader Ginsberg said ‘women’ not ‘a woman’ need to be in all places where decisions are made. This matters.”
Kandy Duncan, president of the Lewisburg Area League of Women Voters, expanded on that idea. “Having all the players represented is as important as every single person voting. You believe you’re being heard when you have representation,” she said.
It’s concerning, she said, when a male perspective is the only view.
“It’s always amazed me that health executives are predominately male in a field made up of predominately females,” she said.
“Nurses run the hospital, but they’re never on the board.”
Female representation is sometimes taken for granted at the local level, but is just as important since decisions made there impact many people’s daily lives, Montour County Commissioner Rebecca Dressler said.
“It’s crucial to have different voices to address the unique challenges and opportunities within our communities,” Dressler said. “Female representation can also inspire future generations of young women to engage in public service and leadership.”