
Election 2008, More Female Firsts
By Janet Wallace • November 06, 2008•Careers, Politics and Government
NH Makes History With First State Senate With Female Majority:
New Hampshire’s State Senate is now unlike any in the country and unlike any before it. After Tuesday’s election, women now make up the majority of the New Hampshire State Senate. In an election year that saw Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Nancy Pelosi grab headlines and airtime across the country, New Hampshire didn’t just vote blue, it voted for women.
Perdue becomes N.C.'s first female governor:
Democrat Beverly Perdue will step into North Carolina's Executive Mansion as the next governor and the first woman to hold that job....Perdue, 61, the current Democrat lieutenant governor, makes history and becomes North Carolina's first female governor. She was already the first woman elected to state government from Craven County and to the lieutenant governor's post.
Michigan Legislature getting 1st female Muslim:
Michigan is getting its first female Muslim legislator, thanks in large part to her Jewish boss, the incumbent.
Rashida Tlaib, a lawyer, community activist and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, easily won a House seat in Tuesday's general election after emerging from an eight-way Democratic primary with 44 percent of the vote in August.
Martin fulfills dream by becoming county's first female judge:
When Dena Benham Martin was out campaigning around Greene County in her bid to become the next Superior Court Judge, there were a few people, mostly women, who questioned the idea of a female judge.
Martin says she remembers one woman asking, "Honey, do you really think a woman should be doing this job?"
Martin was quick with her reply, "Yes, I think a woman can do it just as good as a man."
Kim Schaefer becomes first black female judge in Kent County:
Kimberly Schaefer remembers as a young child going to work with her mother, a clerk at Grand Rapids District Court, and watching judges in the courtroom.
"I told her when I was 4 that I wanted to be a judge," Schaefer recalled late Tuesday. "It has been a dream of mine."
Schaefer fulfilled that dream Tuesday, elected to the 61st District Court -- becoming the first black female judge in Kent County. She knows her mother, a former supervisor in the court's civil division, is proud.
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