Q & A with Madeleine Kunin: Sexism, Power, and the Impact of Government
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During Madeleine Kunin’s three terms as governor of Vermont, her administration focused on education, the environment and women’s issues. This week, the University of Vermont held the first symposium in honor of the 25th anniversary of her inauguration: “What Is the Role of Government? Then and Now.”
VTDigger.org interviewed Governor Kunin—author of Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead—about sexism, power, and the impact government can have on people’s lives.
Q. What was it like to be a female governor at a time when few women held higher office?
A. Well, it was in a sense historic, and because I was the fourth woman elected in my own right. We felt a sense of responsibility to do an excellent job knowing that I would be opening the doors for others. But you know, after a while, being a woman is not the main issue, because you’re dealing with all the issues that any other governor has to deal with.
The difference in being the first in anything – whether it’s the first African-American or the first woman — is that there’s more of a spotlight on you.
We thought that once the election was over that the gender issue would be settled, but it really was there to some extent a lot of the time. As time wore on, it receded, but both in positive and negative ways. It wasn’t all negative.
Q. What are some examples of the kind of sexism you came up against?
A. Overt sexism is — except when you run for president — not politically correct. The press was much more active than it is today. It was a vibrant, critical press that really followed the governor. The press just isn’t interested anymore, or else they’re not being hired to do the job. So there was just a lot more commentary. I followed Dick Snelling, who was a command-and-control type of leader. I’m more (interested in) picking good people and letting them be creative and innovative.
I don’t want to belabor the gender issues because they were more questions of style than substance.
We had a very exciting administration. I chose talented people like Jonathan Lash, who is leading off the symposium on Tuesday, who had already established himself as a knowledgeable person in environmental policy and now is head of the World Resources Institute. I was criticized for hiring an environmentalist to head the environmental agency by people at Killington.
Photo: Vermont Historical Society
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