Bill Lynch: Slow march of progress quickens its step

Momentum shifting for women in politics|

The Women’s March on Jan. 20 was the largest protest rally crowd ever assembled in Sonoma’s Plaza. It was a dramatic point in a steady but slowly progressing fight for women’s rights and the beginning of much faster progress toward their realization.

That battle began here in Sonoma in the late 19th century with a few local women, including my great grandmother, Kate Granice, joining the California suffragette movement. It took until 1920 for women to get the right to vote. In the decades since, progress has been slow.

It was front-page news here in 1952 when Joan McGrath, a former high school teacher, easily outdistanced her male opponents to become the first woman ever elected to our city council. Four years later, when she won re-election and became Sonoma’s first woman mayor, it was even bigger news.

She served two terms on the Sonoma City Council and in 1960 made a nearly successful run for Sonoma County Supervisor, narrowly losing to incumbent Carson Mitchell by 300 votes.

It took two more decades before the next Sonoma woman, Nancy Parmelee, became mayor (1975). Eight more years passed until in 1984 Jeanne Markson was elected mayor. Six years later Valerie Brown became mayor (1990), followed by Phyllis Carter (1992). Mayor Brown went on to become a county supervisor and then a state legislator. But there was a 16-year span between Mayor Carter and our next woman mayor, Joanna Sanders (2008), followed in 2010 by Laurie Gallian.

Progress in California hasn’t been much faster. We’ve never had a woman governor, but at least we have had two women U.S. senators.

Progress in the workplace has also been slow. Truly equal pay and equal opportunity have been elusive in many areas.

Then last November; a repugnant vulgarian misogynist won the Electoral College vote for president in spite of the fact that the first woman to have a real chance to be president won the popular vote. The shock of that unexpected result has galvanized women all over the United States, including women here in our hometown.

Since the Women’s March on Washington, and the hundreds of sister marches across the country and the globe, including here in Sonoma, there’s a growing movement to encourage women to run for office.

Sonoma’s current mayor, Rachel Hundley, only the ninth woman in 65 years to be elected mayor here, made national news as one of many smart, capable women of her generation to step up a run for office.

Sonoma Valley is also represented by Supervisor Susan Gorin. In fact, three out of five county supervisor seats are now held by women.

All over the country, organizations like Emily’s List and others are helping women run for office and have even organized training days to teach them how.

Joan McGrath, Sonoma’s first woman mayor, who passed away in 1995 at the age of 86, would have approved, perhaps only asking one question. “What took you so long?”

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