100 years later, Ohio's track record of electing female leaders remains abysmal
COLUMBUS – Ohio was one of the first states to ratify women's right to vote.
But ever since, the state has trailed the nation in notching important firsts for female elected leaders.
June 16 marks the 100-year anniversary of Ohio lawmakers ratifying the 19th Amendment, which states the right to vote shall not be denied on account of sex. Suffragists who fought for that amendment imagined a future where Ohio women would participate in politics on the same level as their male counterparts.
But a century later, Ohio is one of 20 states that has never elected a female governor and one of 18 states that has never elected a female U.S. senator. In fact, Ohio is one of just six states that has never seen a major party nominate a woman for governor.
Sure, Republican Nancy Hollister holds the title of Ohio's first female governor. But she served for only 11 days – a placeholder after Gov. George Voinovich started his job as U.S. senator.
Republican Jo Ann Davidson broke down barriers when she served as the leader of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1995 to 2000. She continues to do so by leading a leadership training institute for women and serving in prominent positions from the Ohio Casino Control Commission to the leader of Ohio State University's investigation into head football coach Urban Meyer.
But Davidson remains the sole female leader of the Ohio House of Representatives – a fact she's not proud of – 19 years after she turned over her gavel. The Ohio Senate has had one female leader: Cleveland's Margaret Mahoney in 1949.
After a century, only nine women have held statewide, non-judicial elected office in the state's history. (Women have fared better on the Ohio Supreme Court, where there are currently more female justices than male justices and Republican Maureen O'Connor serves as the state's first female chief justice.)
Without discounting the historic firsts for women in Ohio, female leaders on both sides of the political spectrum told The Enquirer that there's room for improvement.
"Being governor is almost like a woman being an ironworker right now," said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who ran for governor in 2018 as a Democrat. "Except we have female ironworkers."
Just do it
There's a general gender rule when it comes to running for political office: Women wait to be asked to run. Men simply jump into the race.
"We’re going to go through a mental checklist before we say 'yes,'" said Rhine McLin, vice chairwoman of the Ohio Democratic Party.
On that list: Can I fundraise? Who will take care of my children? Will I have enough volunteers? Do I have the needed experience?
"Our male counterpart says yes and worries about it later," McLin said.
That's true on both sides of the political aisle.
"Men tend to just jump into things," Ohio Republican Party chairman Jane Timken said. "Someone will have a meeting. ‘I think you should run for the Senate.’ ‘Well yeah, I do, too.’”
Timken is the first woman to lead a major political party in Ohio. When she gives speeches about getting involved in politics to women's groups, she tells them they'll never check all the boxes.
"You sometimes just have to take the risk and believe in yourself,” she said.
Montgomery Democrat Connie Pillich's advice to women considering a bid for elected office: Do it.
Women worry too much about having the proper experience and skills, said Pillich, a former state representative who ran for governor in 2018.
“When you look at how incompetent Congress is, the bar is pretty low," she said.
This is a man's world
Voters choose male candidates for these top positions because that's who they expect to lead, Whaley said.
"I believe that (President) Donald Trump exists because that’s what people want," she said.
People aren't used to seeing women in executive roles. That's true in politics and in business. Women CEOs lead just 33 companies on the Fortune 500 list. (That was a record high in 2019.)
"It’s hard for voters to see a woman as a strong, tough executive," Whaley said.
People might not be opposed to the idea of a female governor, but female candidates are rarely the first names on the list of potential contenders, said Pillich, who leads the National Association of Women Judges.
Because they are often the first, more is expected of female candidates, said McLin, who was the first African-American woman elected to the Ohio Senate and the first female mayor of Dayton.
"She has to have grace with grit and grit with grace," McLin said. "If a man cries, he’s compassionate. If a woman cries, she’s emotional."
And black women face another layer of stereotypes.
"If you are passionate, they can turn around and say you're an angry black woman," McLin said.
Ain't I a Woman
The celebration of women's suffrage in Ohio comes with a critical caveat: June 16, 1919 marked the freedom to vote for white women. It would be another 46 years before the Voting Rights Act would eliminate literacy tests and other overt means of disenfranchising black voters – both male and female.
That's why House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes wore a pin that read "Ain't I a Woman" on her lapel as the nation celebrated the centennial of U.S. Congress passing the 19th Amendment.
The now-famous line from Sojourner Truth's speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron highlighted how white women ignored and even betrayed their black counterparts in the struggle for suffrage.
"This is not an 'All Women Matter' type of event," Sykes told The Enquirer.
What's the effect on modern politics? Women of color have had less time to enter and advance in the political realm than their white counterparts. Black, Latina and Asian women face stereotypes and barriers that their white colleagues don't.
And it's reflected in the numbers. Nationwide, women comprise 28.8 percent of the 7,383 state legislators in the United States, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In comparison, women of color comprise 6.2 percent of all state lawmakers.
Money makes the world go round
Another challenge for female candidates is fundraising.
Ohio's top donors put their money where they think they can win. And that's not always the female candidate or the candidate of color.
"Women are seen as more of a gamble than a sure thing," Sykes said.
As much as Whaley appreciated seeing three women on the Democratic debate stage for governor, she told The Enquirer that it would have been better for fundraising to have just one female candidate. People who wanted to support a woman for governor couldn't decide between Whaley, Pillich and former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton.
"The power of women that pay attention politically was split," Whaley said. "It really had an effect on the ability to raise."
Groups like EMILY's List and the Ohio-based Matriots were formed to help female candidates raise money, but they are badly outnumbered in fundraising circles. (And pro-abortion access stances can isolate them from Republican women.)
Davidson, a Republican, said she admired the Matriots for focusing on Statehouse and local races, which can be overlooked when donors pull out their checkbooks. Davidson believes local politics are still the pipeline to the Statehouse and beyond.
“We have so many women who have climbed that ladder that are willing to reach out and help those women come up,” Davidson said, adding that’s a change from when she made the leap from Reynoldsburg city council to the legislature.
Related:100 years ago Ohio ratified the 19th Amendment. Here are 6 women who made suffrage reality
See one, be one
A century later, the statistics for female leadership in Ohio politics aren't great. The Ohio House of Representatives this year celebrated the highest percentage of female lawmakers in the chamber's history – but women still represent just 27 percent of the House.
But Ohio's top female leaders say each victory for women in Ohio makes a difference for the next person.
“You can’t be it if you don’t see it," Timken said. "It’s important for other women to see women in these leadership roles."
She says that will translate into the country's first female president. Of course, Timken feels confident that president will be a Republican.
"If you look at some of the successful Republican women, we’re ready for it," she said.
It's about telling a different story of what Ohio leadership looks like, said Sykes, the Democratic minority leader.
"Leadership does look like women. It does look like black women," she said. "We’ve got to start changing that narrative."