We’re getting there, ladies. Still got a way to go, so we just have to keep on trying.
In 2025, New Jersey will have four female members in our Congressional delegation. We have 12 members of Congress, so they’ll make up one-third of our representation.
Maybe that doesn’t seem impressive to you, but recall that since 1922, more than a century ago, only eight women have represented New Jersey at the federal level.
Mary T. Norton, an ally of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, was the first. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1924 and served 26 years until she resigned to become a consultant to the Labor Department.
The very first woman elected to the House was Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana. Although she won election, she couldn’t cast a ballot for herself because the Nineteenth Amendment, suffrage for women, was not passed until six years later.
The first woman elected to the U.S. Senate was Rebecca Ann Felton of Georgia, appointed to succeed her late husband. She was sworn in but lasted only two days before she was replaced by a man.
In 1956, Florence Dwyer of Union County was elected to Congress and served until 1972. Two years later, New Jersey elected two women, Millicent Fenwick of Morris County and Marge Roukema of Bergen, who became the longest-tenured female member of Congress. After Roukema’s retirement in 2003, New Jersey had no congresswomen until the election of Bonnie Watson-Coleman of Mercer County in 2014.
Mikie Sherrill, who represents the 11th District, was elected in 2019. LaMonica McIver beat several candidates in a special election to represent parts of Essex and Hudson two months ago, and Nellie Pou was elected in November to represent Passaic and Hudson.
One-third of the State Legislature is female, 41 of 120 members, ranking us 23rd out of 50 states.
New Jersey has had one female governor and three female lieutenant governors. Twelve other states currently have female governors and the highest elected municipal official in Washington, D.C., is also a woman.
But 50 percent of Gov. Phil Murphy’s cabinet is female, a campaign promise he kept.
And there are three women serving on the New Jersey Supreme Court. which has seven members, close to the proportions of the U.S. Supreme Court where four of the nine members are women.
Thirteen of 76 New Jersey cities with populations larger than 30,000 have female mayors while 98 of the 489 smaller municipalities are led by women.
Just a smidgen more than 50 percent of the U.S. population is female, so women have a way to go to be equally represented, but the proportions improve a little each election.
Shirley Chisholm was the first major female candidate to run for president and Geraldine Ferraro was the first to run for vice president. Both were from New York and both lost badly. Hillary Clinton and more recently Kamala Harris failed to gain the highest office in the land.
At least Americans are no longer shocked when a woman seeks to lead a municipality, state or nation. When I first ran for the Legislature, many men and a discouragingly large number of women told me I should stay home and let the men make the tough decisions.
When I was elected despite those opinions, there were only four of us women in the General Assembly and we had no ladies room near our lockers. We had to use the visitors’ restroom one floor above. But when the State House renovation was completed a few years later, a three-stall lavatory was created. I hope it’s getting crowded now.
A former Democratic assemblywoman from Jersey City, Joan Quigley is the president and CEO of North Hudson Community Action Corp.
Send letters to the editor and guest columns for The Jersey Journal to jjletters@jjournal.com.
