Women still rare in local politics

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File photo. Doris
Herringshaw. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

PERRYSBURG – The hide of a rhinoceros, a well-filled purse, and children at the right age.
All three come in handy if you’re thinking of a career in Wood County politics. Also, you might want to
invest in several pairs of comfortable shoes.
That was the take-home message from an often frank, and engaging, panel discussion titled "Women
Engaged in Public Service" held Tuesday night at Way Public Library and hosted by the League of
Women Voters of the Perrysburg Area.
Panelists included Doris Herringshaw, the newest Wood County commissioner; Jill Engle, long-time Wood
County treasurer; and Sara Weisenburger, who served about six months as a Perrysburg City Council member
before being defeated in the November election.
Serving as moderator was Dr. Shannon Orr, a faculty member from Bowling Green State University, who led
off with a brief history of women office-holders in Ohio, and then wrapped-up the evening with a few
ideas for how to get more women to run for public office.
"Almost as soon as women secured the right to vote, in 1920, Ohioans elected women to the General
Assembly," Orr pointed out, starting with six women in the 1923-24 session.
Ohio was the first state in the nation to elect a woman to a state Supreme Court, and in 1940 sent
Republican Frances Payne Bolton to Congress.
"Then the momentum seemed to fizzle," and "after peaking at 24 percent in the 1990s, the
percentage of seats held by women in Ohio’s state legislature has actually dropped," Orr pointed
out.
Weisenburger, the youngest of the three public servants on the panel, said she had to overcome several
concerns before she allowed the local Republican Party to appoint her to fill a vacant seat on
Perrysburg City Council last June.
"I’m a very private person," and Weisenburger said she felt it necessary to consider the impact
on her husband’s professional reputation as well as their three children, who are still quite young. In
the end, she felt the children’s ages were a plus, with no fallout for them.
"I was pretty new to Perrysburg; we moved here in 2009, so that was another one of my
concerns."
"Something I was kind of surprised by was how much it cost to run for office," Weisenburger
added. "I made a budget, stuck to it, spent the least amount of any candidate" in November’s
election when she had to run to hold onto the seat she had occupied for half a year. "Maybe that’s
why I didn’t win," she added ruefully.
She focused on print media and Facebook but found door-to-door canvassing "very difficult. I always
felt like I was bothering people," a message reinforced by barking dogs and frightened children.

"It’s very difficult to engage people, especially people my age," said Weisenburger, who took
her 4-year-old along part of the time she was canvassing.
Herringshaw, too, found going door-to-door mentally and physically exhausting. But "I’ve had friends
who say ‘When you’re in my town let me know and I’ll go door-to-door with you,’" Herringshaw said.
"It’s amazing the difference. People will open doors for people they know."
Women in politics seem to have to consider their children more than men do, even in 2014.
Herringshaw’s children were grown and gone before she ran for commissioner. Engle, who was hired by the
county commissioners at age 18, later had to quit that job when her oldest child was seriously ill. Some
years later she ended up being rehired by the county, which eventually put her in line to be offered the
treasurer’s slot by party elders.
"You basically run 24-7," Engle said.
Weisenburger agreed. "The job on council was a fraction of the time it took to run, which is kind of
a shame."
The women all spoke of getting into politics primarily because others suggested they would be good
prospects.
Both Engle and Herringshaw were privately encouraged to run by Republican Party leaders, and that was
enough to prompt them to enter the arena.
Orr noted that fact. "How do we get more women to run for office? There’s a clear message here: We
need to ask them to run," she emphasized.
Although Herringshaw’s 35-year career was with Wood County’s Ohio State University Extension, both her
father and grandfather were county commissioners.
"Growing up I was used to going to dinners, driving across bridges to see what kind of shape they
were in, putting up signs, taking down signs," she said.
Still, before deciding to run she sought female mentors who had "been there, done that,"
especially Marilyn Baker, the first female Wood County commissioner back in the 1970s.
She was warned by Bowling Green’s Colleen Smith that she was "going to have to have a lot thicker
skin."
"Don’t take anything personally," Engle advised. "I had one guy" who confronted her
in the office, arguing: "The Bible says don’t collect taxes."
"Three different people commented that I should be at home with my children, not on council,"
said Weisenburger. As a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t use day care, "that was very
frustrating."
But in the end, "you’re very fortunate to be in politics," she said, and the part of the job
she enjoyed most was responding to individual citizen requests for assistance.

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