Herland Sister Resources

By Jane Costello - WomenseNews correspondent

New Hampshire’s state Senate will carve history for the Granite State in January when the legislative body convenes with women in 13 of the 24 seats forming the country’s first female majority.

Women will also factor in key positions of leadership: the Senate is presided over by its president, Sylvia Larson, and president pro-tem, Maggie Hassan, while Martha Fuller Clark continues her role as majority whip.

“We are setting a great example for young women: that they can get involved and run for office,” says Sharon Carson, a newly elected Republican senator who formerly served as state representative from Londonderry and works as an adjunct professor at Nashua Community College.

Elizabeth Ossoff, research coordinator for the Center for the Study of American Democracy and Citizenship at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, says the gender milestone has been coming closer for years. After the last election in 2006, women comprised 30.4 percent of the combined Senate and House. When the new session convenes in January, that number will increase to 37.7 percent.

Public reaction in New Hampshire has been low-key and matter of fact. News articles have noted the development but no media hoopla has been evident and, when the new session starts, some legislators have said it will be business as usual.

“It wasn’t like it was intentional,” says Donna Sytek, former speaker of the state House and former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “Women have gradually risen to the top here because they are capable and they do their homework.”

Outside the state, those who track the progress of women in elected positions are elated, although also not surprised by New Hampshire’s new Senate majority.

“I think it’s very exciting,” says Katie Ziegler, a policy specialist for  the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures. “But it’s not surprising; New Hampshire has consistently ranked high in terms of the percentage of women in its Legislature. But they are the only state to have two female officers (Larson and Hassan). That’s impressive.”

Two major explanations for women’s newfound majority are the state’s high number of legislators and their low–practically nonexistent–pay.

New Hampshire’s Legislature has 424 members: 400 in the House and 24 in the Senate, making it the largest legislature in the United States and the fourth-largest English-speaking governing body in the world.

The New Hampshire General Court–as the state Legislature has called itself since its inception in 1784–is in session for six months, between January and June, and elected officials are paid only $100 per year, plus gas mileage, to serve.

Until November, women comprised one-third of the state Senate in
neighboring Vermont, making it the current leader. It will lose that title to New Hampshire in January, although Vermont will continue to outrank New Hampshire–just barely–in terms of the overall percentage of women serving in the Legislature: Vermont will have 37.8 percent while New Hampshire’s figure will stand at 37.7 percent. The Colorado Legislature will remain 38 percent female, the highest in the country, but it does not have a female majority in either the House or the Senate.