• Mississippi has a low representation of women in its legislature, with only 18 out of 122 seats in the House and 9 out of 52 seats in the Senate held by women.
• A program at Millsaps College aims to increase female involvement in the legislative process by placing students as interns with state lawmakers.
• The program provides students with hands-on experience in legislative research, constituent outreach, and event organization, exposing them to the inner workings of state government.
• Participating lawmakers see the program as beneficial for both the students and themselves, as it provides valuable assistance and promotes female representation in politics.

When it comes to women’s involvement in the legislative process in Mississippi, most would agree that historically there haven’t been many seats at or around that political table.

After all, relatively few women have been elected to seats in the Mississippi House and Senate, and other roles in the process for passing laws such as lobbying, legislative staffing, legislative news reporting and advocacy work also in the past have put women in the minority.

As for elected officials, Mississippi women make up only 18 seats in the 122-member House and nine seats in the state Senate, which has 52 members. Only one woman holds a statewide office, Lynn Fitch, who serves as the state’s attorney general.

One program at Millsaps College, a Jackson-based private college, has been attempting to help reverse that position by placing women students with state lawmakers during session. The program has been in place for seven years.

While this isn’t necessarily going to result in elections, Millsaps College politics professor and program director Eric Schmidt said, it will expose them to the legislative process and could possibly inspire some to pursue one of the many careers that participate in the legislature.

“It began from this observation of a crisis of representation for women in Mississippi state politics and our donors and faculty members got involved in the creation of the program,” Schmidt said. “We’re trying to figure out if is there a way to give young women at Millsaps an opportunity to shadow legislators for the duration of the session, and that’s what the program has been.”

Jackson casino bill: House kills Jackson casino project bill. See why

One of the four students participating in the program this year, a Little Rock native and Millsaps senior Abigail Henry, said the experience so far this session has opened her eyes to the difficulties that people in the Legislature face, especially lawmakers looking to work on legislation and lobby for further support for their initiatives.

Henry also said she has seen how she as a woman can participate in this process and has gotten a firsthand look at how people in the Capitol, regardless of identity, work to advocate for, research and reach across the aisle.”

“Even given the current political climate, there’s a lot of different voices that are being heard and amplified in the House,” Henry said. “I think just there being women interns at the Capitol makes it to where if anyone has any prejudices associated with women or female college students, just interns being at the Capitol challenges their paradigm, and like causes them to rethink their own biases a little bit.”

Schmidt told the Clarion Ledger the program works by selecting a small number of juniors and seniors who sign up for the course. Once selected, those students are placed with a lawmaker and serve essentially as a staffer.

Those responsibilities include conducting legislative research on what bills are moving through the House and Senate, performing constituent outreach for the legislator and also helping to organize events. In some instances, students even discuss legislation with politicians that their legislator is pushing for.

Mayoral candidates: 11 mayoral candidates pitch themselves as Jackson prepares for upcoming elections

This year, Reps. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel; Timaka James-Jones, D-Belzoni; Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson and Tamarra Butler Washington, D-Jackson, all took on students such as Henry. The other students in the program this year are Candise McDonald, Sara Cavicchi and Anesu Chipendo.

All of this, Shmidt said, is to increase their awareness of and participation in the legislative process.

“A lot of their work is self-directed,” Schmidt said. “So, several of the students participating on their own initiative are conducting research on things that they know that their legislator is interested in and producing write ups for their lawmaker that will be relevant at some point down the road.”

Scott said she has been helped greatly by her student, Sara Cavicchi, who has helped her with research on the various bills in the House. Scott, who often challenges GOP-sponsored legislation in the House, said that research is vital to her work on and off the floor.

“I do think that it is critical for young women to be exposed to this process,” Scott said. “That’s why I think this program at Millsaps is so important. The other thing that I would say is that it is critical that we involve them, and that’s what I’ve tried to do with Sarah. I’ve tried to let her see what it is that I do, the things that I need to do my work and have her to actually see what it is that I do and how it’s done.”

James-Jones, who has been working directly with Henry, told the Clarion Ledger that the program has helped members to see women in more roles at the Capitol, which pushes the boundaries on what women can do as elected and unelected officials in state politics.

“I think that having the opportunity for students to be more engaged in this program, it gives them a direct opportunity to share all this along with us,” Jones said. “We’re so happy to have Abby. She’s doing a phenomenal job. I mean, she’s spot-on on everything, very resourceful.”

As the legislative session continues, Henry said the experience she gains in the state Capitol will help translate into skills she needs to put under her belt as a social worker and policy advocate.

“A lot of my job will be advocacy, and I like learning how to advocate for marginalized populations,” Henry said. “I wanted to get some experience like researching legislation and different ways of advocating for marginalized people that might be nontraditional and also I just like being able to communicate with people of different political parties on certain issues.”

Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.