Though women’s groups have applauded the recent elections of Martha Coakley and Maureen Feeney to positions of power in Massachusetts — as attorney general and Boston City Council president, respectively — some say women have long strides to make to achieve gender equality in public office in the state.
“We are making steady progress in Massachusetts, but it’s a heck of a lot slower than what we’d like to see,” said Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus Executive Director Jesse Mermell.
Mermell said the state does little to encourage women to represent their districts in government, so various women’s organizations and elected women meet on a regular basis to assure a “pipeline” encouraging female candidacy.
Jill Ashton, outreach coordinator at the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, described a MWPC program called the Massachusetts Gubernatorial Appointment Process, which has worked since 2002 to provide the Governor’s Office with the résumés of qualified female candidates.
The program, she said, seeks to “eliminate the excuse that government officials had made in the past — that they could not find qualified women when making high-level appointments.”
She said the organization was able to present the Romney administration with names and backgrounds of about 300 women they deemed qualified to work at the State House.
The University of Massachusetts-Boston Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy also runs a graduate certificate program that educates women in politics, equipping them with the tools to run political campaigns and help change public policy, according to associate program director Donna Stewartson.
Stewartson said the program has produced successful politicians, including CWPPP graduate Liz Malia, currently a state representative.
Despite the success of these programs, Ashton said the gains have been “hard-won,” and although 52 percent of the Massachusetts population is female, women “rarely scratch 30 percent” of representation in government positions.
She said she has faith that Massachusetts will gradually see more women in positions of power but remains “concerned about the pace.”
The recent Massachusetts gubernatorial election, Stewartson said, showed the general pubic is still hesitant to accept a strong female candidate. After former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey lost the recent gubernatorial election, Ashton said Healey’s tendency to pull away from presenting herself as a stereotypical female, instead maintaining a more dominant image, may have left some people uncomfortable.
On the national level, Massachusetts has sent only three female representatives to the U.S. Congress. There are only a few female mayors in the commonwealth, and Feeney is only the second woman to serve as president of the Boston City Council — Louise Day Hicks was the last woman to hold the post, in 1976.