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At one time, Ohio ranked 15th in nation for females in legislature; now it's 40th
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
COLUMBUS: Following the Year of the Woman in national politics in 1992, male party and legislative leaders in Ohio began to actively recruit and run members of the opposite gender for the state legislature.
The results were impressive.
By 1995, one in four members of the 132-member Ohio General Assembly were women, up 15 percent in just three years.
The same year, Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg, was chosen by her colleagues to be the first woman speaker of the House in the state's history.
Nancy Hollister, the former Marietta mayor, was lieutenant governor and would make history for 11 days in January, 1999, as interim governor when George Voinovich left for the U.S. Senate prior to newly-elected Bob Taft being sworn into office.
Ohio was not only changing, but pulling ahead of other states, moving up in the rankings from 29th to 15th in the nation for women in the legislature.
Today, however, as Hillary Rodham Clinton is vying to become the first woman in America to be a major party candidate for president, Ohio's track record on electing and appointing women to the state legislature has regressed.
To what extent?
The number of women in the legislature has reached new lows not seen since before 1992.
Ohio has dropped to 40th among
states for electing women to the legislature.
In 2008, one in six lawmakers, less than 17 percent, are women.
Democrats fare far better than Republicans in electing and appointing women to the Ohio House and Senate, with their numbers still roughly matching the 1995-96 levels.
Ongoing effort
Ohio's slippage is almost exclusively due to a dwindling number of women Republican lawmakers.
One in 10 Republicans in the Ohio House are women while there is one Republican woman among 21 GOP members of the Senate, or less than 5 percent.
House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said there is an ongoing effort to find and fill seats with women candidates.
Husted said for the first time in Ohio House history, two women lawmakers — Michelle Schneider, R-Madeira, and Shannon Jones, R-Springboro — are part of the majority floor leadership team.
He said there are women candidates running for contested Ohio House seats this year, including Peggy Lehner, who is attempting to win in his district. Husted is term-limited and running for the Ohio Senate.
In 1995, there were five Republican women state senators. Today, there is a sea of white, male faces in the Republican caucus save state Sen. Joy Padgett, R-Coshocton, who is not seeking re-election.
Her district has been held by a Republican for years, so odds are good that next January a white man, state Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, will be sitting on the Senate floor.
Karen Gillmor, a former state senator, gives Republicans their best shot of taking one seat next year. She is attempting to return to the Senate and is backed by the Republican caucus.
Choosing replacements
The Republicans in the Ohio Senate can point to a number of reasons for the dearth of women among them, but in the end they have had the power to address the problem.
When lawmakers leave early, and in the age of term limits this happens with a greater frequency, the party caucus in the House or Senate chooses their replacements.
The white men in the Senate Republican caucus have been picking white men to fill vacancies.
More than half, 11 of 21, of the sitting Republican state senators were first appointed to their seats before running for election.
Ten of the 11 appointees were white men, the most recent being state Rep. Mark Wagoner, R-Ottawa Hills, who moved from the House to the Senate through an appointment to fill a vacancy on Jan. 15.
Efforts to reach the Senate Republican Caucus for comment were unsuccessful.
In the Ohio House, Husted and Republicans picked Barbara Sears, R-Sylvania, to replace Wagoner.
In the Senate, matters have been made worse for gender equality.
Three of the 10 white men appointed to the Senate were named to fill seats previously occupied by women.
Last year, when state Sen. Patty Clancy, R-Cincinnati, decided to step down, her Republican male colleagues voted to name state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati.
A.J. Powell, an Ohio Senate Democratic caucus spokesman, said his caucus has used the appointment process to ensure diversity.
Four of the 12 Democrats in the Senate are women.
In 2007, Democrats filled two vacancies.
A woman, Capri Cafaro from Hubbard, was named to replace Marc Dann, who was elected Ohio attorney general.
However, Tom Sawyer, a former state and federal lawmaker, Akron mayor and state school board member, was appointed when Kimberly Zurz stepped down to run the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Sawyer was chosen over state Rep. Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent.
''When women run for office, they are fairly successful, but when you ask for an appointment that usually doesn't happen. I can't explain why, but a person's comfort level about strong women is a factor,'' Chandler said.
She said the number of women serving in public office has remained consistently low at about 20 percent on the local level.
Difficulties of recruiting
Former Speaker Davidson said she started a political training institute in 2001 after experiencing firsthand the difficulties of recruiting women candidates for office.
''I think it's unfortunate we've slipped, but there are a lot reasons,'' Davidson said.
In 2000, the first year term limits took effect, there were nine appointments to fill vacancies during Davidson's last year as speaker.
''I was there and I struggled to find qualified, interested women candidates,'' Davidson said.
She said she has spoken with Husted and Harris, and has helped identify good women candidates.
Three Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute graduates are running for state representative this year and another is running for the U.S. House, she said.
''We have a growing cadre of women. It is a slow process, but we are making progress,'' Davidson said.
At the same time the number of women in the legislature has declined, two of the five statewide officeholders and three of the seven justices on the Ohio Supreme Court are women.
State Auditor Mary Taylor, a former state representative from Green, said women hold high ranking nonelected positions in the public sector, and it is important to convince them to run for offices themselves.
Taylor said many women with school-age children — she has two teenage sons — wait to run for office, but she said the same balancing act that many families use to maintain a private sector job will work for a mother in an elected position.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she was recruited in the early '90s to be a candidate, but waited until her children were in college before running for judge and then statewide in 2006.
Brunner said it is important for more women to become involved in all aspects of government, and to begin winning locally to develop talent for higher office.
She said after 1992, political strategists estimated a woman's name on the ballot automatically gave her a 5 percentage point advantage over a man.
As time has passed, and voters have elected women to office, the inherent advantage has lessened, Brunner said.
Ohio has drawn the attention of the White House Project, a national organization that focuses on involving more women in every aspect of political campaigns.
Formed in 1998, the White House Project initially targeted three states: Colorado, Georgia and Minnesota.
Faith Winter, the project's national field director, said Ohio is on the next list of states for the organization because the numbers are so low.
''You were doing so well, but it's clear there is a lack of a pipeline,'' Winter said.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Following the Year of the Woman in national politics in 1992, male party and legislative leaders in Ohio began to actively recruit and run members of the opposite gender for the state legislature.
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