We are doing it! (Page 1 of 1)

At a brief moment in the March 11 City Council meeting, one could stand back and watch the X and Y chromosomes splitting, sigh and say “Boys will be boys” and “Girls just wanna have fun.” 

The consideration of agenda items 11-D and 11-E brought the gender clichés to the surface: D, a resolution authorizing the leasing of 19 Harley-Davidson motorcycles for the police, and E, a new top-of-the-line Ladies’ Room for the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. 

The very mention of Harleys had chrome rims glimmering in Councilman Rob Frost’s eyes, prompted him to make a well-timed joke and triggered booming basses and baritones through Main Assembly hall.

E could have easily stood for “estrogen.” The resolution engendered an emphatic “Moooove to approve!” from Councilwoman Marilyn Roddy. Gazing across the U-shaped panel to the one other female council member, she and Councilwoman Barbara Pelot, who seconded the motion, smiled and shared a few explosive “amens.”

Though Knoxville’s City Council could hardly be viewed as a battle-of-the-sexes forum, rare moments when gender stereotypes tempt might quickly follow with the observation that the contingency of female representatives is so vastly outnumbered by the male majority. In Knox County, women make up 51.2 percent of the population, according to recent Census data, yet less than 18 percent of the locally elected officials are female.

But East Tennessee women are steadily making their leadership present, in a variety of different fields, be they law, politics, health care or education, and even within the past couple of years, positions that have historically been held by men are seeing their first female officeholders.

An increase in women holding positions of power doesn’t necessarily translate to a level playing field. In 2006, the last year the Census Bureau released income evaluations, women still earned only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.

It’s these times that have inspired women like Amy Broyles, Knox County Commission candidate for the second district, to stare right through a glass ceiling and wonder what she could do to make it disappear. Less than a year ago, she founded the Progressive Women’s Coalition, a non-partisan organization that aims to recruit, train and support women seeking leadership positions as well as educate the community on the value of equal representation for both sexes.

“When women come to the table, the conversation changes,” said Broyles April 19 at the PWC’s strategic planning retreat, encircled by women representing both Democratic and Republican persuasions. “I don’t want women to take over. I want women to have their share.”

More and more local women are saying the struggle begins with a dialogue, and several who have recently accomplished a “first” for women are adding to that conversation.

League of Women Voters chairwoman Nan Scott says the local increase in participation and representation by women in professional and political arenas is only a first step: “The Knoxville-Knox County LWV commends women ‘firsts’ throughout our area. Although there is positive momentum, there is still plenty of work to be done to reach equity.”

Debbie Poplin,
Knoxville’s first female law director

When Mayor Bill Haslam recognized Debbie Poplin as Morris Kizer’s successor to the office of city law director at a Feb. 11 City Council meeting, she was wearing a powder pink jacket.

Pink and politics can be a deadly cocktail when mixed. Three years ago when another Debbie, U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, donned a pink suit on Capitol Hill, a reporter asked her if she were trying to achieve a more “Republican” look. She laughed, shrugged and facetiously dubbed herself “Congressional Barbie.”

Though men in government are rarely asked to comment on the clothes they wear to work, Poplin, the first woman in Knoxville’s history to attain this appointment, says her choice of wardrobe was not about an I-am-woman statement.