 Let me let me welcome everyone to the lobby of the state house for yet another historic occasion We're all about history in this building as well as the history that is made every day in this building and the history to come and Today we're we're doing something rather Important and that is to acknowledge that for Oh, roughly a hundred and eighty years Women have been very much a part of this building But they have not exactly been playing the same way that men have played in the state house and we're here to inaugurate a new exhibition in the main lobby that we hope tells that story Truthfully tells the story of how women have attempted to be a part of this building long before the past 100 years when they actually have been part of the politics of this building and We're here to inaugurate that story We want you to spend a fair amount of time reading it Looking at it appreciating it and then getting back to the state curators office with any comments that it may prompt And we have a wonderful little list of people who are going to help us celebrate today and At the very top of that list of course Is the governor himself Phil Scott and that's about all I have to say Well, good afternoon, and thank you all for having me. It's great to be here for this dedication You know the state house is not only home of state government, but it's the people's house And it has been a museum from the very start that's important because the museums tell stories and The stories of this place naturally revolve around our people and our politics However, an unfortunate part of this story is that throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Men took center stage in state government making the decisions within this building and buildings like it across the state Our country I should say it was not until the 19th amendment was added to the US Constitution a hundred years ago That finally gave women the right to vote and tender the state as lawmakers And make no mistake. This was a result of hard work and commitment of women across the state and country advocating day in and day out for for women's suffrage People like my grandmother Who lived on a farm in nearby Plainfield and was a proud and loyal member of the WCTU the women's Christian Temperance Union Today, we celebrate the achievements of these advocates and female trailblazers across the state and in this state house I want to thank those women who blaze the trail all those years ago and to each of the legislators Who carry that torch today, and I'm pleased to be surrounded by many of you this afternoon It's fitting that that we mark this occasion in the same week when we saw Katie Sowers Make history when she became the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl I heard her say that all it takes is one and it opens the door to so many and That's so true and when I think about my two daughters I want to thank all those women who have been the one who opened more opportunities for my girls and for all women In the Vermont legislature that one woman was Edna Beard Vermont's first woman legislator in the executive branch It was governor Madeline Cunan and lieutenant governor Consuelo Bailey and in our highest court It was the niece Johnson Vermont's first female Supreme Court justice And while it takes just one to open the door it takes many to widen it So again, I want to thank the speaker Majority leaders Ballant and crew in ski minority leader McCoy Dean of the house my friend representative Emmons and So many others serving with them today and who served in the past for showing young girls around the state What they can achieve? Every one of you is helping to move the mean the needle to bring more gender parity to the state house and to our work So I thank you for that Because we've come a long ways in a hundred years, but not far enough yet Enclosing I want to acknowledge the many people who contributed this project Including David sheets and the curators office friends of the state house the historical society the state archives and records administration and so many more This is an important issue to celebrate and again. I thank you all for being here today and now Vermont's third Woman's speaker of the house Mitzi Johnson Credibly proud of the title madam speaker Now here's a quiz 50 states about two weeks ago Because of changes in two other states we hit a historic high of the number of Madam speakers in state houses across the country Think to yourself Don't clap just yet How many is that? Good job, sir. Thank you for noting eight eight out of 50 is The high that we are celebrating I'm not okay celebrating 16 percent and While it takes that one woman to be the first It takes systemic changes So that others can follow on the house floor today we clarified campaign law so that So that you could use campaign expenditures for child independent care Vermont is the last state in the country that has never sent a woman to Washington and when we when we look at Members of Congress and the US Senate The vast majority of them started in politics before they were 35 Which means we need to make sure that women in their teens and 20s and early 30s Have the support they need from their community from their partners from their employer to both take care of the family that they share many of them with men and also take care of the world around them by running for office by being leaders in the business sector by Becoming members of the Supreme Court I am thrilled to celebrate the women that have gotten us here. I Am thrilled to own the title of madam speaker at this point in history and We need to all work together on the systemic changes necessary for true equality Because if a hundred years Gets us to 16 percent We got to pick up the pace folks Thank you Speaking for the Senate the president pro tem Tim Ash Well, thank you David, and I think It's a really powerful just like when we created the Exhibit about abinac is which is just off to that corner Which was really the first time this building Acknowledged people who were here long before people came to settle from Europe and other parts of the world What we start with today, and this is really a starting point is a rather modest but important first Recognition of the influence that women have had in this building, and I think it's just in the last two days We've had hundreds of students from across the state walking through the hallways If they were walking through almost any corridor here They would see just two or three portraits of women on the on the walls here I think we all know that to be true and yet one of the strange things is that this building This building is not meant to be a building of governor's portraits and Lieutenant governor's portraits. This is actually the legislature's building first and foremost, and I just want to briefly acknowledge The particularly outsized role women have been playing in the legislature now When I first got to the Senate We we have what we call the money committees So in the house it's ways and means and appropriations in the Senate it's finance and appropriations These are called the money committees when I arrived all four committees were chaired by women So for most important positions really in the legislature all chaired by women I Then became the chair of finance. So I kind of became the male auxiliary of the women of money but Then I was removed from that position So we're back to four women who chair the most important committees in the legislature And I think though that beyond that house and Senate committee chairs for decades now have been Ably filled by women leaders. We do not see their pictures on the wall And I know I see the chair of our institutions committee, which is in charge of capital Activities Joe Benning and he is interested in making sure that next year when we see hundreds of kids coming through here They're seeing women representation on the walls not just the men who have the white starch collars from the 1800s So I just want to say Briefly what a privilege it has been to serve alongside so many very powerful talented women in my role in the Senate right now It's a lot easier when you only have 30 to do a quick List of them, but senators Jane Kitchell and Cummings Jeanette White Ginny Lyons Alice Nica Becca Ballant Debbie Ingram Alice and Clarkson Ruth Hardy and Cheryl Hooker are all women senators Who do such a fantastic job here? And I think that we do need to change the way this building looks so that looking back people will see their faces on the walls Not just those guys from the 1800s. Thank you. I I Started my tenure as curator back in the 80s when Madeleine Cunan was Vermont's first governor. I vividly remember that long after Madeleine left this building in 1993 the state house did something even more monumental and Unthinkable at the time Teresa Randall was elected as the first female Sergeant at arms and I still remember that there were a lot of guys in the building who had trouble with that They could accept a governor that was a woman, but the sergeant at arms and Happily now we're on to our second and that's Janet Miller Thank you so much. I just would like to reiterate The opportunity to recognize Teresa Randall. She was a sergeant at arms from 1993 to 1996 and Teresa worked for Governor Cunan in 1993. It was very rare for a woman to be a sergeant at arms I think maybe there was one other but not very many So the Vermont legislature again showed their confidence in a woman and elected Teresa to that position Teresa passed away last year and she was a mentor to me So we had a lot of conversations of how things have changed but sometimes things still say the same And I think there's still some element of surprise when someone comes up to me and says Is the sergeant at arms here and I say well you're talking to her So it's a bit of a surprise, but I think people are getting used to it There are still maybe less than 10. I'm not sure sergeant at arms throughout the country So it's a privilege to have that honor I'd like to just say for 25 years later 2020 there are many women in the Vermont State House not only our legislators, but we have administrative staff committee staff attorneys fiscal analysts Police officers doorkeepers tour guides janitorial and cafeteria management Lobbyists and media personnel those were all roles held by men previously And now our eighth-grade pages who by the way were all boys until about 1973 72 early 70s. I think it would be very strange for them to be here and there weren't any women So I'd also like to thank all of you And I don't want to forget the men who support the women here at the Vermont State House I think that's an important thing because we're in a lucky place to be so thank you Our last speaker is one that we wanted to reflect on the long picture here at the State House the long view and so naturally we turned to the dean of the house Representative Alice Emmons Welcome, I had a really hard time figuring out what I was going to say, but let me just start by saying I was first elected Back in 1982 I was 27 years old And I thought I'd start out by giving a little bit of statistics in terms of where the women were back in 1983 and 84 that was my freshman year in this building as a pretty young person and At that time in the Senate, there were four women senators in the house. There were 30 Women in the house of the 30 10 came in with me So in 1983 is when we started seeing the trajectory of going up At that time we only had in the house about three chairs that were women To this day we have over half of our committees That are chaired by women The other thing I looked at too was the division between the two parties for the women and they were pretty evenly split There were 14 Democratic women and 16 Republican women so in Contacts in looking at that We have grown but we have a tremendous way to go We also had a woman's caucus back then and our first priority in the women's caucus was a law For for child seats a requirement that our children Be in a car seat and not just strapped in with a seat belt And I remember that was our one of our first debates on the floor of the house and that was Pretty split in terms of gender in that the men did not want to have to put a car seat in The front seat of their pickup truck to drive around the farm That was the left. That was the debate at that point. So here we are 20 years later and we have 10 women senators and 62 women house members So we're getting there So the other thing I noticed in terms of a A woman governor I was here when Madeline was elected And the thing that struck me the most was inauguration day. It was a very soothing and Meaning meaningful day the Vermont Symphony was here playing and It was just a very calm and joyful day The inaugurations for a man governor are very very different And I didn't realize that until after Madeline was no longer governor There were brass bands. There were military. It was a very very different feel And that's how it has changed over time because even now with a male governor It's a softer tone Which I think we bring to the table And the last that I'll say this is a little strange It's a little strange But it shows the impact that we had back in the late 80s. We built an addition to the state house and One of the major pieces of discussion was How many bathrooms for women? Because we didn't have enough and that was a large discussion when we did the expansion And the other part that was really important to that were changing tables We did not have changing tables in the state house and we very seldom even had Legislators that could bring in their children And now that has all changed So we've made progress. Thank you and we have more to do So in in wrapping up I want to thank a few people who made our Exhibition possible at the very top of that list is the assistant state curator who I am so proud is among the foremost women's historians in Vermont Jack Zylenga But Jack would be the first to thank the four women Historians who helped us substantially with our story Telling in the exhibit Amy Morslin is Amy here from Middlebury College Melanie Gustafson from UVM is Melanie here Marilyn Blackwell The favorite historian here in central Vermont Marilyn And who am I forgetting? Yes, Karen Madden at Northern Vermont University Those four women Jack was in regular communication with them throughout this process And we've been working on this for a year and a half at least and in that process we have been very Substantially assisted by the curatorial task force Chared by Mary Leahy Mary is right over there. I See quite a few members of our task force They are the people who are working avidly with us Starting with the Abonackie display on the other side of the lobby to connect all Vermonters to their state house that is our mission We have all kinds of strategies for accomplishing that but these Exhibitions are a direct result of the work that we've done with Mary's Commission and we'll be continuing to work with them on that mission in the months and years to come perhaps Finally the friends of the state house They have worked with me for 40 years here at the state house to restore the building and to begin the process of Acknowledging that this building is a museum and that Consequently it has audiences and we need to address those audiences you heard Tim about the school kids. We get more school children than any other Site by far in Vermont and we take our mission to teach them about not only Vermont history But civics and what is going on in this building? That is very much a part of our mission to make sure that they understand government Understand history and its place in their lives to go forth to be citizens of Vermont That's huge and we are very grateful to the friends for helping us with that mission and For throwing great parties So down that hallway is a wonderful reception that we want you to enjoy We have also partnered with the Humanities Council who are at the table over here We're presenting tonight's farmers night, which where we sing the 19th amendment to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights With a wonderful assortment of singers many of them legislators and people here in the state house and We have Meg Mott is Meg here Meg Mott is a scholar from Marlboro College Another historian and authority on the 19th amendment and Meg is going to engage the farmers night audience in an examination of that pivotal moment when women got the right to vote and Finally over here The alliance the Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance is the Organization that you need to be aware of throughout the year This is just the beginning of a whole year's worth of events that the alliance is On top of visit their website The Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance and you will see event after event culminating in the August 22nd observance of the actual centennial when it was ratified by I'm sorry to say the state of Tennessee Yeah, it could have been Vermont, but it wasn't You'll find out why when you examine our exhibit and So many wonderful stories are over there So, please spend some time with the exhibit reading about the desk that is on display that both Ebna Beard and Consuelo Bailey Shared and how they used that desk We're very grateful to the Vermont Historical Society for making that available to us for the exhibition Anyway from now on let's celebrate women Let's celebrate the empowerment of women right here in this building and let's party on Thank you