THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603150032
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
One of her male colleagues was chiding the 33 men of the Senate at the moment that Louise Lucas decided to stand up.
``This is not about the welfare of children,'' thundered Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw of Springfield, as he debated a bill requiring doctors to notify parents when their daughters seek abortions.
``Don't think for one second this isn't a guy thing. That's exactly what it is.''
Lucas, an ebullient community activist from Portsmouth who learned the power of silent protest in the civil-rights movement, caught the words ``Guy Thing'' and responded instinctively. She tapped Mary Margaret Whipple, a freshman senator from from Arlington, who tapped Patsy Ticer, the freshman senator from Alexandria.
Within seconds, as Saslaw continued to speak, six of the Senate's seven women were on their feet, fixing their male colleagues with steely gazes. The only one not standing was Jane Woods, a Fairfax Republican, who later lamented that she had not realized what was happening until the moment passed.
``It wasn't a rehearsed thing,'' said Lucas. ``It was kind of a girl thing. We can speak to each other without speaking.''
``It felt wonderful,'' added Ticer, describing the sensation of standing together.
That moment during the final week of the 1996 Assembly was powerful also for those who have watched the Virginia Senate evolve from a Male-Only club. What was most striking was not the women's unity on the issue, but their sheer mass. Men still dominate, but with last fall's election, better than one in six senators is now female. Confronted as a group, that's too many to ignore.
As usual in Virginia, change has come slowly. Twenty years ago, legislative subcommittees literally met on occasion in the men's room. A few years later, the men of the House Courts of Justice Committee snickered while considering a pioneering sexual-assault bill. The 1986 Senate manual contains not a single woman's photograph.
Even today, thirty-five states have a higher percentage of women in their legislatures than Virginia. The Old Dominion's 15 percent is a far cry from Washington state's 40 percent. And progress has not arrived in a straight line. While there were a record 14 women in the 100-member House this year, women chaired fewer committees than earlier in the decade.
Still, the impact is palpable. Virginia's property, inheritance and child-support laws are all stronger for the diversity - as are laws on environmental regulation, workers' compensation and dozens of matters that have nothing to do with gender.
This year, several bills affecting women likely would have had different outcomes in an earlier era. Despite opposition from powerful insurance and business lobbies, the Assembly granted women enrolled in health-maintenance organizations the right to see an ob/gyn without approval of a primary-care doctor. The lawmakers refused to liberalize child-custody laws in a way that would reduce the incomes of many mothers; and they stipulated that a woman who has been raped does not have to identify the father of her child in order to receive welfare benefits.
``Would (the shift on rape) have made it through the legislature had there not been women here? Would the outrage have been as great?'' asked Woods. ``I doubt it.''
Many female lawmakers argue that they impact the process in more subtle ways as well.
``Women tend to focus on a goal instead of glory far more readily. It's second nature,'' argued Woods, a moderate Republican whose independence put her in a pivotal spot when the Senate's 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans were figuring out a power-sharing arrangement this winter.
Woods' counterpart on the Democratic side, conservative Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount, used his swing vote to bargain for a position on the budget negotiating team. Woods set the adoption of fair Senate rules as her goal.
That kind of cooperative mentality has not permeated the halls of power yet.
On the session's final day, bleary-eyed legislators gathered for a final briefing on the $35 billion budget. After a weeklong, House-Senate standoff on who should sit at the bargaining table, the legislature was finally about to adjourn - two days past deadline.
Handing out plaudits to the Senate's budget-negotiating team, Sen. Chuck Colgan of Manassas engaged in a bit of macho chest-thumping: ``They were tough when they needed to be tough. . . . They were in-your-face when they needed to be in-your-face.''
Let's hope they were also reasonable when they needed to be reasonable.
Maybe that's a ``Gal Thing.'' Maybe it would also have helped the Assembly adjourn on time. MEMO: Ms. Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB