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Kentucky women lack political presence

Former Lexington Mayor Teresa Issac
www.electwomen.com
Former Lexington Mayor Teresa Issac

By Ron Smith

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-891593.mp3

Frankfort, KY – Over the past three decades, Kentucky women have seen some positive changes, but increasing their political presence is not one of them. Kentucky Public Radio's Ron Smith talks with two politically prominent women about the status quo and their ideas for change.

"Good afternoon and welcome to women making political history in Kentucky"

Marta Miranda directs Eastern Kentucky University's Women and Gender Studies program.

"Women have been in charge of many things for a long time and like many other groups we are left out of the history books and the job of women and gender studies is to make the invisible visible."

The invisible, or at least the very hard to find, are political leaders. The statistics tell the story. Of Kentucky's 138 General Assembly members, six senators and 15 representatives 15 percent are female. In a national ranking, Kentucky is 45th in the number of women holding elective office. Numbers like that were expected to change years ago to be specific, 27 years ago when Kentuckians elected Martha Layne Collins as the state's first woman governor.

So why hasn't the situation changed? State Auditor Crit Luallen traces the problem to the many personal and professional demands on a woman's time. Many women, Luallen says, can't even spare the time it takes to travel to Kentucky's state capitol

"for a woman to serve in the general assembly, if you live in far western or eastern Kentucky it's hours of driving for every single meeting in addition to the time in Frankfort and so if you look at our general assembly most of our legislators who are women come from a circle that is fairly close driving distance that is partly because women are juggling a career, if they have children at home they've still got that responsibility and many of now dealing with aging parents."

As a result of that long commute, Luallen says many more Kentucky women focus on local politics, serving on school boards and city councils and the like, where she says they can keep their lives in balance.

That still doesn't explain why Kentucky women lag so far behind their peers nationally. After all, women in every state face the same challenges. Former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac has another explanation. Isaac says some avoid politics because they fear fundraising:

"and you have to be able to do that, that's part of the game but even if you think you cannot raise as much as another candidate I think you still have to get in there and try and run because sometimes the voters will pick the candidate they think will do the best job and not the one that raises the most money."

Isaac and Luallen have tips for women who want to enter politics they say to get a foot in the door by working for a candidate or issue they believe in, develop leadership skills in local organizations, or establish a mentoring relationship with a seasoned political pro.

Luallen and Isaac are encouraged by the efforts of young women who already do that. But they also predict it will take years to significantly improve the number of women elected to statewide political office.