Women have only been elected members of the United States Congress for 101 years, of the U.S. Senate for 85 years, of the Hamilton County Commission for 39 years and the Chattanooga City Commission for 27 years.
On this Mother's Day, it seems fitting to honor those women who chose not only motherhood but politics, or, if you will, not only politics but motherhood. Either way you term it, both can be full-time jobs, and neither are easy.
Here are just four who are or who have been active on the political scene in the last quarter century:
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- Dr. Candice McQueen, Tennessee's commissioner of education, was running late several weeks ago but still wanted to give the Times Free Press editorial board plenty of time to describe an improvement strategy for several underperforming schools in Hamilton County. As the questions for her were concluding, she mentioned in passing wanting to pick up her two children in Nashville, still two hours away.
McQueen's prescriptions for improving the state's underperforming schools may not please everyone, but we've been impressed with the input she says she wants from parents, teachers and other stakeholders, the passion she has to improve education for all students, and the hard work she has had to put in to create the state's plan under the recently submitted Every Student Succeeds Act.
She also is a strong advocate for the importance of students reading on grade level by third grade and on improving teachers so they in turn can improve their teaching.
McQueen was appointed just over two years ago, but she seems to us the ideal candidate with a calm demeanor for such a political job, where no matter what she does is likely to make somebody mad.
- Sabrena Smedley, like many of her Hamilton County Commission colleagues, has a full-time job in addition to her elected duties and is a wife and mother of three. She is a Realtor and evidently a successful one, having previously been named Realtor of the Year by the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors.
We have often said with the meetings commissioners attend, the neighborhood associations they speak to and the background reading on issues they must do to keep informed that their commission post is practically a full-time job.
Smedley, the only woman on the commission but not the first one to serve on it, seems to know everyone in her East Brainerd district, works closely with her school board representative and the Chattanooga city councilman in the area, and hosts or helps host informational meetings in her district to keep residents informed.
We're not sure how she gets it all done and still sleeps, but we're grateful for her voice on the commission.
- It was in the long ago-razed Drew's Drugs, across from what is now Dalewood Middle School, where we heard the news in August 1974. Mort Lloyd, the Democratic winner in the recent primary election for the 3rd District Congress seat, had died in the crash of a small airplane he was piloting near Manchester, Tenn.
In the days to come, we would read speculation about who might take his place in the election. But it was his widow, Marilyn, who would step in, surprising everyone. With no political background in a usually Republican district, her prospects were dubious. But in that Watergate-tinged year, the mother of three upset incumbent U.S. Rep. Lamar Baker. And she kept winning - 10 terms in all.
Lloyd was one of 18 women in the 435-member U.S. House, then very much a man's world. Today, there are 104 women.
For 20 years, she served admirably, capably and honestly and was known to be big on constituent service. Though a Democrat, she kept in mind with her votes the district was becoming more Republican in each succeeding election.
We have long admired her courage in jumping in the race and her service to the 3rd District.
- Lastly, this writer's mother took a brief and by all rights successful venture into politics. Retired from many years of sales work, she threw her name into the hat for city commissioner of the tiny hamlet of Ridgeside in 1990. Not only was she elected, she was the top vote-getter among five candidates in the nonpartisan election, making her mayor of the 99-acre city on the side of Missionary Ridge.
For four years, she worked earnestly, studying briefing books on various issues to be more knowledgeable, making phone calls and hand-writing a newsletter that she drove around and put in residents' mailboxes to keep them informed of goings-on in the city.
Among her accomplishments, she responded to complaints about cars that were prone to speeding in the child-friendly berg and installed the first speed humps there.
After four years, she chose not to run again, though supporters at the time told her she was the best mayor they'd ever had.
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On this Mother's Day, we all can be thankful for our mothers. But we're especially grateful for those who take on the dual role of mother and politician.