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Vermont Woman - You open your memoir, Living a Political Life, with your decision not to run for a fourth gubernatorial term. By then you’d served for 17 years, first as a Representative from Burlington, then as Lt. Governor and Governor. The question you say you continually faced was whether you were “as strong as a man.” Do you think your successors, Governors Snelling, Dean, and Douglas, have faced comparisons to the standard you set as a woman, building a more inclusive and egalitarian government.
Madeleine Kunin - I think we did set a standard. Definitely for appointing women. Governor Dean kept a lot of the women that I had appointed. I haven’t added up the numbers of women in the Douglas administration. I don’t think it’s as high as Dean’s record, but it certainly has become more commonplace to have women serve in top positions in government. You know, in 1984, when I was elected, there were a whole group of women who were eminently qualified, but still their credentials were different from the men who had preceded them. What I was able to do was broaden the definition of qualifications.
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