We are doing it! (Page 3 of 1)

As a senior in high school, Barile worked as an assistant lab technician in a hospital where all the techs were women and not one woman was a doctor.

It was also in her senior year of high school she says she realized being a woman had limitations in the professional world. She had attended Career Night at her school and sought information at the Federal Bureau of Investigation table. She had an older friend who worked for the FBI and thought it could be a cool career.

“I, like most girls my age, grew up reading Nancy Drew books and thought that spying was pretty exciting,” she says. “Imagine my chagrin when the agent who was at Career Night said the FBI didn’t hire women!”

Barile began her career in the public sector in Illinois where she worked as village clerk for a town of 630 people. During that period, her office was located in a basement where she had a desk, filing cabinet and copy machine. Male councilmen represented all of the village council seats.

“I didn’t see much of them between council meetings, where I took the minutes,” she says.

But during those hours working in the basement, Barile grew fascinated with municipal administration. Whenever she asked the village attorney a question, he handed her a copy of Illinois state laws and suggested she look up the answer herself.

“Some people might have been offended by that,” she says. “I enjoyed it.”

When she and her husband moved to Tennessee, she immersed herself in public service volunteer opportunities, sitting on boards of numerous organizations like the Solid Waste Board, Habitat for Humanity, Morristown Cemetery Restoration Committee, Tree Board and Zoning Appeals and chairing organizations like Morristown/Hamblen Keep America Beautiful System.

Residents encouraged her to run for mayor in 2007, and her subsequent campaign led to the overwhelming support of 1,039 votes compared to one-term incumbent Mayor Gary R. Johnson, who received 688, and two other male candidates who garnered the remainder of votes.

Her support from the community has been firm, but many are still learning how to address a female mayor, sometimes forgetting themselves with pet terms like “honey” or “darling.” Barile shrugs them off, asserting those affectations “don’t get them any place” with her.

“I for one think, ‘Well, what am I supposed to be called? Madame? Mrs.?’,” she says. “I even had one person call me ‘your excellency.’ I was so glad the first time I met Mayor Haslam. He said, ‘Hi, I’m Bill.’ Here, I’m just Sami.”

Progressive Women’s Coalition

In 1895, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary entered the word “feminism” into its lexicon with the definition that still appears in its most current volume: “1, the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes; 2, organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”

Yet the women who gathered in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church for the Progressive Women’s Coalition’s strategic planning retreat don’t all consider themselves “feminists.”

“I’m not a feminist,” says Ruthie Kuhlman, a Republican candidate for Knox County Commission District 4A. “I still want men opening doors for me.”

Kathy Bryant, a Democratic candidate for county commission’s District 6A seat, who was sitting beside Kuhlman, nodded along in agreement.

It seems as the years have gone by, whether or not Webster has acknowledged it, changes have occurred in society that may have manipulated or distorted the connotation of the word.

But despite how they define their involvement in the PWC, the women gathered agree more efforts are needed to promote women in public service. The group in attendance included UT female professors, local party representatives and three current candidates seeking different county commission seats.

They’re supportive of each other, despite differences in opinions or political affiliations.