LINGLE – Every state in the union picks two of its most notable residents to be honored with a statue in the United States Capital in Washington, D.C.
Massachusetts chose to honor one of the United States’ founding fathers, Samuel Adams, with one of its statues. Ohio chose Thomas Edison. California is represented by Ronald Reagan. One of Wyoming’s statues is of Chief Wasahakie.
The other is of Esther Hobart Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial office in the modern world and a women’s suffrage pioneer.
She was appointed to that position in 1870, just one year after women were guaranteed the right to vote in Wyoming.
Students from Lingle-Fort Laramie High School got a unique opportunity to learn about that heritage and history on Monday from Sen. Cheri Steinmetz and Rep. Shelly Duncan, two local women with firsthand knowledge of the political process in Wyoming.
Just one day shy of the official 150th anniversary of the day Wyoming women were guaranteed their right to vote, Steinmetz and Duncan shared highlights from their political careers and talked to students about some of the state’s women’s suffrage milestones.
“Suffrage, to me, when I first heard that, I didn’t understand that word,” Duncan said. “What it is, is its from suffragium, which is the Latin word for vote and political support. I was like ‘OK, that makes sense now.’”
Duncan led a discussion on important women in the history of Wyoming, including Brown, and their role in helping Wyoming become The Equality State.
“There’s a 50-year gap there between the whole nation and Wyoming,’ she said. “It’s pretty incredible that Wyoming did that.”
Steinmetz explained that Wyoming is a citizen legislature. It’s unique, in that state legislators still have jobs and businesses in the communities in the areas they represent.
“We are a citizen legislature, which means we have our businesses and everything back home, but then we go and represent during the legislature,” she said.
The legislators fielded questions from students, and also discussed the future of women in the state’s politics. Prior to the discussion, history teacher Adrian Gross had students write out questions about things they were curious about. One of the questions posed was how close Wyoming is to electing its first next female governor.
Nelly Ross was the female governor when she served from 1925 to 1927. Ross won a special election after her husband, sitting Governor William Ross, passed away.
Duncan said she believes the time could be sooner rather than later.
“I think Wyoming’s temperature is ready,” Duncan said. “I don’t know if nationally we’re ready for a woman president still – it depends on the right candidate coming along – but I think the temperature is that Wyoming is ready. Wyoming is pretty progressive.”
Steinmetz, who endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Harriet Hageman in the 2018 election, said Wyoming has made progress, but there’s still work to be done.
“I endorsed Harriet,” Steinmetz said. “She is a Goshen County girl, raised in Fort Laramie down the road. It was really exciting to have her running for governor. Having been on the campaign trail with her, I heard some of the opposite of that. I heard some people say we’re ready for a state senator, but we’re not ready for a woman governor.
“I was surprised they had the audacity to say that to me, me being a woman, but several men did. I just flat out said ‘well, it should come down to whether you can do the job or not.’”
Duncan explained to the students that even in 2019, 150 years after women got the right to vote, women can still face issues when they’re in leadership positions.
“When women are in a role of leadership, unfortunately sometimes we have to work harder,” she said. “We have to be more stoic, and ahead of things only because of the comparison to men. We can do the job just as well or better sometimes, but we have to prove ourselves a little more.”
The roundtable conversation was intended to help the students realize that there are people in the government they can relate to, and who are working for them Gross said. it’s important for students to see that.
“I think the large importance that comes from it is seeing these people who are in these positions in government,” Gross said. “They understand that they have a common background and they come from the same place. That’s going to let these kids see that one day we’re going to need kids to fill these leadership roles – they can do that, too.
“I think our kids took something away from it. The important thing is that they get to meet these people and hopefully someday they’ll want to go and do those jobs and fulfill those responsibilities.”
And according to Steinmetz, the reason she serves is to preserve those opportunities for the people of Goshen County.
“That’s why we serve. It’s about you guys,” she told the students. “We know what we love and we want to make sure that future generations have that and have the same opportunities that we do.”
