Where are all the women in government here in Franklin County?  You certainly see enough of them behind desks, working for a wage, maintaining the functional underpinnings of every day life in our towns and villages.

How often have we heard: “things would fall apart around here without her?”

But where are the women in elected and appointed government positions? Though they represent half of the county’s population, you can count the number of women in those positions on a single hand.  The bigger the town, the more conspicuous the absence of female participation.  

The City of St. Albans has an all-male city council, and an all-male planning commission.  Yet, at a recent council meeting we heard how invaluable and versatile has been the thirty-year service of, Jane Kiser, the paid Community Development Manager.

“Things would fall apart around here without her.”

The Town of St. Albans has an all-male selectboard, an all male development review board, and with the notable exception of Chairwoman Cheryl Teague, an all-male planning commission.   Cheryl is something of a marvel IMHO, for her unwavering intellect, patience and tact.

The story is very much the same in Swanton.  Women occasionally crop-up among officials in some of the smaller towns of Franklin County, but they remain a dismal few.  They serve on development review boards, which are, for the most part, charged with enforcing the decisions made by higher officials.

Of the 46 representatives appointed by communities to the Northwest Regional Planning Commission, only nine are women.  Without exception, the female representatives are from the smallest towns and villages in the county.  One has to wonder if  the only way a woman is chosen by her community to serve is if there are simply no men available!

How can this be acceptable in the most progressive state in the Union?  And at what cost to the vitality of our towns and villages has this status-quo been maintained?  There is no doubt that we lack ethnic diversity in the demographics of our state, but surely we can do better in representing gender diversity among our decision-makers!  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that, when communities disproportionately represent only the ideas and agendas of male decision-makers, society suffers as a whole.  We need the creativity and dexterity of female minds in the mix so that we may benefit from fresh perspectives on age-old civic problems.

This is my call to the women of our county to step-up and challenge that status-quo for the good of us all!   By and large, women are the majority of active voters in America.  Surely we can do better than this right here in our own back-yard!  I am offering my time and energy to credible female candidates for office in St. Albans City, so that together we can bring about a truly revitalized and forward-looking community.

Come on, gals… Let’s get uppity!