Time for women to lean in for parity in public office

By LINDA MITCHELL AND MELISSA THOMPSON ALEXANDER — appeared in the Tacoma News Tribune on October 29, 2013

Washington has long been a leader in women’s equity. Women were given the right to vote here in 1910 – 10 years before the 19th Amendment’s ratification. In 1926, Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes became the first woman to lead a major American city. Dixy Lee Ray became one of the nation’s first female governors.

More recently, in 2004, Washington became the first state to elect all women – Gov. Christine Gregoire and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell – to the state’s top three offices.

None of this happened by accident.