Gamely, women gain grip on the Granite State

CONCORD - Daniel Webster, New Hampshire's native-son statesman, once looked to the great stone face above Franconia Notch and wrote, "in the mountains of New Hampshire, God almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

The great orator, who died in 1852, surely could not have predicted a time when the Old Man of the Mountain would tumble from his granite perch, much less when women would control the levers of power at the State House.

New Hampshire last week voted into office a majority-female Senate, the first time any state in the country has elected a legislative chamber in which women outnumber men.

That might surprise those who know little more about the state than its aggressive motto ("Live free or die") and craggy symbol (the late, lamented Old Man), but not voters or officials in New Hampshire, which has a history of electing women that dates to the 19th Amendment.

The Senate milestone has received national attention, but local reaction was more appreciation than elation, in an understated, New Hampshire sort of way.

"It's great," said Kathy Sullivan, the state's Democratic national committeewoman. "But nobody's like, 'Oh my God, this is so revolutionary.' It's sort of matter of fact."

Indeed, local political watchers focused last week on the fact that Democrats - who in 2006 took hold of the state's Senate, House, and governor's office concurrently for the first time since the 1870s - had maintained power for another term. Only after the dust settled did they realize what women, and voters, had done.

In addition to electing 13 women to the 24-member state Senate, voters also chose former governor Jeanne Shaheen as a US senator, unseating Republican John Sununu, and reelected US Representative Carol Shea-Porter as well as the state's female Senate president and House speaker.

That means Democratic women will hold four of the top seven offices in the Granite State.

"It feels incredibly exciting," said Maggie Hassan of Exeter, who is poised to become Senate majority leader, "but at the same time, not surprising."

If manliness were a US state, it might well be New Hampshire, with its fireworks stores, hunting culture, and highway liquor outlets, and its absence of seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws. Its formidable granite State House is guarded by statues of men such as Webster and John Stark, the Revolutionary War general behind the phrase "Live free or die." But beyond those statues, women have moved and maneuvered among men for decades.

The 19th Amendment, which granted women's suffrage nationwide in 1920, was ratified too late for women to file for that year's New Hampshire elections. No matter. Within a few weeks of its passage, two women had mounted write-in campaigns in the primary and went on to win House seats: Mary Louise Rolfe Farnum, a retired physician, and Jessie Doe, the daughter of a former chief justice.

Fifty years later, Farnum, Doe, and the women who followed were commemorated in an official booklet issued after the 1970 election, which put in office 70 female lawmakers, or about 17 percent of the Legislature. At the time, fewer than 5 percent of legislators nationwide were women.

"One of the many democratic features of New Hampshire's giant Legislature is its femininity," the booklet began, describing a perceived high-water mark for what it termed the "fair sex" and "lady legislators."

"No other legislative body on earth has had so many women lawmakers, never has had, and probably never will," it said.

That high point has been surpassed repeatedly. Today, roughly 150 of the state's 424 legislators are women, putting it about 10 percentage points ahead of the 24 percent of state lawmakers nationwide who are female; the percentage in Massachusetts mirrors the nation.

This is the second time New Hampshire's speaker and Senate president have both been women. A decade ago, Shaheen as governor presided over a State House in which women held all three top offices.

Shaheen, though, was not the state's first female governor; 26 years ago, Republican Senate president Vesta Roy briefly served as acting governor after Hugh Gallen fell ill and died, making her the country's first GOP female chief executive.

As the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, New Hampshire's 400-member House provided women with more opportunities and fewer barriers to entry than those in other states. The volunteer status (lawmakers earn $100 a year) and relatively low cost of campaigning also enabled women to win House seats ahead of their counterparts nationally.

When you have one representative per 3,000 or so residents, "the old boys club, so to speak, isn't as private a club," said Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political scientist.

"It's a natural progression from being the volunteer on the PTA to being on the school board to being in the state Legislature," said Donna Sytek, a Republican who became the state's first female House speaker 12 years ago. Although there were many women at the State House when she arrived in the 1970s, Sytek saw considerable changes over three decades. When she started, the women with time to commit to the Legislature were largely homemakers; when she left in 2000, most were balancing careers or had retired from professions.

The successful women set examples for other candidates and the electorate. The current speaker, Terie Norelli, was a freshman when Sytek won the office. Sylvia Larsen, the Senate president, first met Shaheen as a volunteer nearly 30 years ago when Shaheen was coordinating Jimmy Carter's reelection campaign. Larsen, in an interview, credited the three-term governor, political activist, and mother of three with demonstrating to this fiscally conservative, socially moderate, libertarian-minded state that a Democrat, and a woman, could lead.

Shaheen, who served three terms in the state Senate, said yesterday that she looked to leaders such as the late Susan McLane, who chaired multiple committees and introduced hundreds of bills over nearly three decades in the House and Senate.

McLane viewed eclipsing the 33-percent-female ratio in the Senate, nearly 20 years ago, as significant, Shaheen said. Although not a round number heralded in the press, it marked a subtle change in behavior among male lawmakers: Women were not treated differently, she said.

But the "real breakthrough" will come when women in politics make news only for their leadership, experience, and ideas, Shaheen said.

Indeed, "how many times have we had four, five, six, seven of those [top] positions held by men and it wasn't a story?" said Norelli, the House speaker.

Norelli presides over the 189-year-old Representatives Hall, the nation's oldest legislative chamber in continuous use. On Saturday, Girl Scouts from across the state climbed into the seats ordinarily occupied by lawmakers, gathering there for an awards ceremony and afternoon tea. They were addressed by New Hampshire's chief law enforcement officer, a former Girl Scout: Kelly Ayotte, the attorney general.

Ayotte has argued before the US Supreme Court and given birth to two children while in public office. Standing beneath massive oil paintings of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Pierce, she spoke to the girls about balancing work and family and pursuing dreams, as well as what she called the privilege of helping others.

"It's what motivates me," Ayotte told the girls, "and I hope motivates you as you become the future leaders of this state."

Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com.