ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
Retirements and possible retirements of influential women legislators in Virginia could return their issues to the back burner.
FORMER Texas Gov. Ann Richards, speaking Tuesday in Salem, said it well: Women ``bring a different perspective and, without us, legislative bodies and every other institution in this nation are incomplete.''
That message resonates in Virginia's General Assembly, where only recently have female legislators begun to enjoy real clout in the shaping of public policy - but where the retirement this year of at least two, and perhaps as many as five, women members could spell a waning of women's influence.
Five fewer women? Does it matter?
It well could. As Richards cautions, do not make the mistake of stereotyping ``women's issues'' as of secondary significance.
Are issues of children's health, education and welfare of only special-interest concern? How about the well-being of elderly parents? Access to medical services? Job discrimination? Equitable divorce settlements? Domestic violence?
Such issues touch the everyday lives of many, and are not gender-specific. It is women, however, who have been at the forefront of efforts to address them in the Virginia General Assembly - sometimes against formidable odds.
A trickle of women has served in the House of Delegates since 1924, and in the state Senate since 1980. But Virginia's legislature remains one of the most male-dominated in the nation. Only 21 of the state's 140 lawmakers, or 15 percent, are women. The national average is 21.5 percent.
Increasingly in recent years, Virginia's female lawmakers have crossed party lines to stand together on matters of common interest to men and women alike. They've magnified their influence through a bipartisan women's caucus, through a network of advocacy groups known as the legislature's Women's Round Table, and through sheer stamina. They've made nonpartisan efforts to encourage more women to run for office, and to help them raise the money necessary for doing it.
Even so, says 15-year veteran Del. Gladys Keating of Fairfax, there are not enough women waiting in the wings to run. It's possible, says Keating, one of those retiring, that women could lose hard-won ground in the General Assembly. That should worry the many Virginians of both sexes who've benefited from women legislators' ``different perspective.''
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB