Opinion: Record number of women in California Legislature is a point of strength, not just pride

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Legal guidelines meant to offer girls the strong rights that they had been denied for many of recorded historical past are a welcome staple of recent life in a lot of the world. However the “glass ceiling” phenomenon — through which girls’s development in most facets of the work pressure in prosperous nations is marked by solely restricted features in essentially the most highly effective and consequential positions — is disappointing and past dispute.

For this reason it’s heartening to see the surge in elected girls leaders in California. Because the Sacramento Bee studies, 50 of the 120 positions within the State Senate and Meeting can be held by girls on Dec. 5 if the present vote tallies of state legislative elections maintain. That’s a pointy enhance from the present session’s 39 feminine legislators and practically double the 26 seen in 2017. Even earlier than this surge, feminine legislators in Sacramento had damaged by means of the “glass ceiling,” successful key management posts — specifically these from San Diego County.

Senate President professional Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, is already ensconced in state historical past for being the primary lady and overtly LGBTQ individual to guide the Senate. She is the primary Californian in 150 years to have led each the Senate and Meeting. Former Assemblymember Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, turned the primary Black feminine secretary of state in California in 2021. Earlier than resigning to guide the California Labor Federation, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, was chair of the highly effective Appropriations Committee and the writer of a number of groundbreaking legal guidelines. Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, served as Meeting GOP chief from late 2018 till earlier this 12 months. California’s document on this entrance is powerful in Congress as properly. For many of the final three a long time, each its U.S. senators had been girls. And longtime Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who simply introduced she would go away management when Republicans take over the Home majority in January, has had as impactful a profession as virtually any trendy U.S. politician.

This shouldn’t simply be seen as a degree of delight for Californians. It’s a level of power — an indication that this state and its voters acknowledge and worth proficient people from various backgrounds.