SHELBURNE FALLS — Where are we today, almost 100 years after women in America first won the right to vote?
Former state Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, and Marie Gauthier, founder of the Franklin County Chapter of the League of Women Voters, will talk about “Local Women in Politics” tonight at 7:30 in the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center, 53 Main St. Story and Gauthier will offer some advice and answer questions about women in politics in their talk, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
“This is quite a time to be talking about where women are,” said Story, who served as state representative from Amherst for 24 years, stepping down in 2017, after being elected a dozen times. “More women are running for office than ever before.”
When Ellen Story ran for the first time in 1991 there were several candidates vying for an open seat — none of whom Story wanted to see elected. Friends suggested she run for the office, but Story said she had never thought about running for office at the time.
“Statistics are that women have to be asked to run seven times before they’re willing to step up. They have to be willing to speak up and (they) have to know something about the issues,” she said. Another hurdle for many women, she said, was reluctance to ask for money for their own election campaigns. She said women are better at raising money for worthy causes than asking for money for themselves.
“I tried to talk other women into running, but they said no,” she said. So, Story ran, she said, and despite all the competition, her timing was good.
“It was the time of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991,” she said. “People all over were saying we should get more women in office. That fact that I was the only woman in the (representative) race did me no harm, at all,” she said. “It was called the Year of the Woman, and the number of women in the US Senate doubled — from two to four,” she said.
She said the women’s Me Too movement is prompting more women to again consider stepping up to serve.
The program is sponsored by the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club. It will follow a short business meeting of the club at 7 p.m. Members and those interested in becoming a member are invited to a social time beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The club was founded in 1925 to promote community improvement projects and programs benefiting local children and youth, and to unite and involve women of the community in an organization promoting cordial personal relations and community service. The club is proud to support the Bridge of Flowers, which was initiated by the club in 1929. There are no requirements for membership other than payment of $25 annual dues.