Aug. 18, 2024 marked the 104-year anniversary of women earning the right to vote through ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. While Americans across the U.S. celebrate this momentous occasion in the fight towards equity and equality, we must remember not all women earned the right to vote in 1920. It took years of organizing until Black and Brown women and Native American women could vote in our nation. The push for all women to earn the right to vote took years; both at the State Legislature level, as well as at the federal level. It took dedicated Mainers organizing local chapters, engaging their peers to become involved in lobbying legislators to create this change, and rabble-rousers of all kinds with the perseverance that lies in the heart of every Mainer to ensure this crucial legislation made it across the finish line. 

Women earning the right to vote ultimately opened the door for women to earn the right to cast their vote in the Maine State Legislature. The first woman to serve in the Maine legislature was Dora Pinkham of Fort Kent, a Republican who was elected in 1923 to the House of Representatives and then in 1926 as a Senator serving Aroostook County. Dora was known as an effective orator around the State House, consistently fighting for the expansion of, and access to, health care for women, especially mothers. During her first session as a legislator, only one piece of her proposed legislation did not pass a vote. It was a bill for Maine to participate in the federal Sheppard-Towner program. This program would have funded health clinics, health education, and midwifery training. These types of reforms aimed to support maternal health are a torch many still carry within the Legislature, myself included.

Fast-forward to 1949, less than thirty years after women had earned the right to vote, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. Margaret hailed from Skowhegan and served in D.C. with the Republican Party. She was so entrenched in servitude to the nation, she became the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention. Famously, Margaret stood up against McCarthyism in her speech, “The Declaration of Conscience.”

These female change-agents did so much for the country during their service to our nation; but more than that, they set the stage for women in Maine to be able to run for office, garner votes, and become elected in a way that can bring about true and meaningful change. Currently, there are thirteen women senators serving on both sides of the aisle within the Maine State Legislature, myself being one of them. I am honored to serve alongside several other impactful female legislators in the wake of the powerful women who came before us. Knowing well that we are also setting the stage for strong women legislators who will come after us.