The following piece is the follow up to From Police Academy to Feminist Activist.

When I left the Sheriff’s Office, I went to work for a non-profit.  We were hugely political and I loved that aspect of the job.  I immediately began to volunteer for different campaigns mostly doing canvassing or literature drops.  It was good exercise, especially when the weather was nice, and I would sometimes bring my nieces along to help me out.  It gave us all an opportunity to spend time together while helping a cause we believed in.

After I’d been at my job a few years I met Anne, a woman around my age who was an acquaintance of my boss and who had been a legislative aide.  We struck up a friendship and as we got to know each other she began to expound on her favorite political topic:  Getting more women to run for and elected to office.  I’d worked on a few women candidate campaigns, but the majority of the campaigns I volunteered for had been male candidates or issues.  She convinced me to come to a meeting of the Women’s Political Caucus in my state.

So one fine Saturday we drove up the road to the meeting.  When we got there the conference room was already full of women sitting around a large table.  I was impressed.  While I had been working on campaigns for a long time, I had never participated in any of the planning.  This was all new to me so I sat very quietly and listened while the group discussed the current small number of women legislators and who might be talked into joining them.  Names were bandied about, individuals weighed as to their chances for winning, and more importantly, their willingness to run.  Fundraising, and political platforms were all discussed, and since this was a non-partisan group of women, the only qualification necessary to run for the job was that the candidate was female.  It was a heady and thrilling experience and I was the thirsty sponge soaking up all the strategies and political patter with gusto.  I couldn’t believe such a group existed!

As Anne and I drove home late in the day she wanted to know what I had thought about the meeting.  Of course I told her how exciting it had all been, and that I hadn’t realized that political campaigns were so complex, and, more importantly, that I had never heard of a group that wanted more women in public office.  “Sign me up,” I told her, “I want to be involved.”  She immediately invited me to the next meeting.  “We could drive up together,” she suggested, and then smilingly told me that several of the women legislators would be attending and I would have an opportunity to meet them.  I accepted the invitation with alacrity!

Later that month found us on the road heading toward the next meeting.  It was very early as breakfast was being served to begin the all-day political event.  We duly arrived and I was introduced to those I hadn’t met before, including the three or four women legislators who were attending.  After we had hung up our coats, we were directed to the buffet line to get our food.  I was amazed to see that those serving our meal to us were these self-same women legislators, and they were doing so happily.

It was a day of intense conversation, collaboration, and candidate selection and I left at the end of it with my head spinning and not quite able to take in the full scope of what had been discussed.  I was, after all, a mere ingénue to this part of the political process and much of what had transpired was very unfamiliar to me.  Still I was hooked and attended several more meetings before my work schedule made it impossible to participate any longer.   Ah well!

A year or two later while I was blissfully pursuing my life with little or no political involvement, I learned that one of the women legislators I had previously met was running for the U.S. Senate seat in our state.  I immediately volunteered to help remembering very clearly how impressed I had been with her.  I ended up meeting a man named Henry, who was heading the phone banking detail of the campaign in our area.  I joined his phone banking brigade and we became not only close friends, but Henry became my political mentor as well.

Unfortunately our candidate lost the election, and while it was a sad day for all of us who had worked on the campaign, Henry persuaded me to join our local women’s activist group.  Thus I attended the group’s picnic and was introduced to Henry’s wife, Kelly, who became another friend and mentor.

It was through participation in this group that I began to get a much clearer idea of the political process and a better grounding in how it worked.  I learned to lobby and participated in numerous rallies for various legislative bills.  And I became reacquainted with the women legislators I had met before.  Only there were a lot more of them now.  Many of these women had run for office in the previous election and had won their races, increasing the number of women legislature.  It was an exciting time.  But what was truly amazing about this particular group of women was that, although they didn’t agree on everything, they decided to stand together and vote as a block to get bills passed and they were able to make many favorable changes to existing laws for women, as well as pass new legislation.

That was twenty or more years ago, and having watched those wonderful, strong, and dedicated women weave their magic, I know it is possible for women to stand together and accomplish great things – if we work together for our common benefit.  I know it’s possible because I’ve seen it happen.

You might wonder what happened to some of those truly great women I had met.  Well, one of them became the mayor of our state’s largest city, one ran for Congress, some continued to serve for a few more years as State Representatives and State Senators.  And one became our state’s first woman governor.

If we believe we can achieve it, we can – together.