It was not all that long ago that Gwen Giles became the first African-American woman to serve in the Missouri Senate. Gwen was appointed to fill an unexpired term from the 4th District, but then ran for the seat in her own right and won the race in 1977. Gwen co-chaired the Legislative Black Caucus and examined the Bi-State Development Agency for racial discrimination in hiring practices. She also led the fight for state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
In recent years Maida Coleman was elected minority floor leader of the Missouri Senate, the first black woman to hold that role. Catherine Hanaway became the first female speaker of the Missouri House in 2003 and later became U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
It is no longer unusual to read about female CEOs at Forbes 500 companies like Meg Whitman at Hewlett Packard or Ellen Kullman of DuPont. As of this writing, 20 of the CEOs at some of our country’s largest companies are women, including Marissa Mayer, recently named CEO of Yahoo. It’s only a matter of time before we elect our first female president of the United States.
A number of women are featured in the Hall of Famous Missourians in the third floor rotunda of the Capitol. In my opinion, potential candidates for the Hall of Famous Missourians include Gwen Giles, civil rights activist and attorney Margaret Bush Wilson and Annie Fisher, a daughter of former slaves who became a successful small businesswoman.
At a major tech conference in Boston, a 17-year-old woman named Jennie Lamere beat out all of the older, male techno-wizards and was named Best in Show for her application to block Twitter feeds of certain television shows to prevent “spoilers.” Jennie beat out professional developers with her Twivo and is now sorting through job offers.
Young women like Jennie no longer face the barriers women of my generation faced; they are free to pursue their dreams, no matter where those dreams may take them. Women now serve in combat in our armed forces, they lead some of our nation’s largest companies, they hold positions of power in our state and federal governments, and they fly to outer space and travel to the deepest depths of our oceans on scientific missions.
Women are still homemakers, and teachers, and nurses, but we are no longer limited to those roles like our mothers and grandmothers. Today we celebrate fewer and fewer firsts when it comes to the roles of women, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Maria Chappelle-Nadal is a Missouri state senator (D–14th District).
