FEATURED ARTICLE

A woman's place is in the House ... and the Senate and the Congress and ... the White House?

Terie Norelli Courtesy photo

The 2006 mid-term elections saw women politicians take the New Hampshire Statehouse and Congress by storm.

Democrat Carol Shea-Porter scored an upset over Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley to be the first woman to represent New Hampshire's 1st District in Congress.

A surging grassroots effort wiped out Republican control of the New Hampshire Legislature, putting Democrats in charge for the first time in anyone's lifetime. The new establishment is led by two women: Sylvia Larsen of Concord is state Senate president and Terie Norelli of Portsmouth is House speaker.

In a state known for its many firsts, from the first potato crop to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, Larsen and Norelli follow in the footsteps of other prominent women leaders in the Granite State. Hampton's Beverly Hollingworth and Salem's Donna Sytek were president and speaker, respectively, in the late 1990s, while Jeanne Shaheen was the state's first woman elected governor.

A distant first, one of inspiration to Shaheen, was Marilla M. Ricker of Dover, New Hampshire's first woman lawyer who ran for governor when women were denied equal voting rights.

Regardless of the remarkable chronology and milestones in New Hampshire, when Larsen and Norelli took the oath of office in January, the traditional ceremony was seismic in nature.

"It was very exciting to see," said Ellen Fineberg, executive director of the Women's Business Center of New Hampshire, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization based in Portsmouth.

The national scene is chock-a-block with strong women leaders, and they are dotted across the political spectrum. There is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

California Sen. Nancy Pelosi emerged as speaker of the House. And Maine's two U.S. senators remain resolute: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are both moderate Republicans. Maine also has several high-profile female lawmakers in its Legislature, including state Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth H. Mitchell, D-Kennebec County, and state House Majority Floor Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven.

In the states, there are eight women governors. Martha Coakley is now the first woman attorney general of Massachusetts "" joining the company of New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte. When Coakley was sworn into office in January, she did not mention the gender milestone. In a similar standing, Portsmouth's Norelli focused on the considerable tasks ahead of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, with scant mention or reference to herself as a strong woman leader.

Sytek, Norelli's predecessor, said gender was of little consequence in numerous interviews when she assumed the gavel.

The emergence of women in political power is not as revolutionary as it is evolutionary, she told the National Conference of State Legislatures in one of the association's magazine article in 1999.

"Women have been doing the heavy lifting in legislatures for years," Sytek said at the time. "I don't think there has been a seismic shift in the attitudes of legislatures. Rather, it has been a gradual transformation, reflective of the evolution of opinion by the people who elect us."

The current legislative session in New Hampshire finds a record number of women sitting in the House and Senate.

For the first time in New Hampshire history, women make up more than 37 percent of the House and 42 percent of the Senate. The 2006 state elections saw 236 women run for the General Court, with 156 winning a seat in the 424-member Legislature. The overall representation of 37 percent is up from 30 percent in the last two-year legislative session.

"We celebrate and honor this important achievement as yet one more step toward reaching equal representation of women in elected office," said Theresa de Langis, executive director of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women.