[HCCN] Women in Politics (NH)

[Dexter Bellows]

this is a positive sign- ;-D

		"First, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to raise  
the state's gasoline tax by 15 cents over three years. Then the House  
approved a bill allowing the use of medical marijuana, by a vote of  
234-138. Next, it voted to repeal the state's capital punishment  
statute. The House wrapped up March with a vote to legalize same-sex  
marriage, and the Senate followed suit  
yesterday.".......................

	........."Still, there's something in the air in New Hampshire. Until  
recently it was the only state in the country that did not provide  
free public kindergarten - and defiantly so. Now the state offers  
grants and other incentives to its local school districts to provide  
kindergarten classes, and only a tiny handful are still resisting.  
There's even a mandatory seat-belt law under serious consideration, in  
a state where the God-given right to bash one's own skull in has been  
long revered.

What could be causing this unprecedented turn in Granite State  
politics? Here's one idea: women.

Since January, the New Hampshire Senate has been making history as the  
first majority female legislative body in the country: Thirteen of its  
24 members are women. Overall, the New Hampshire Legislature is 37.7  
percent female, just a fraction behind Vermont (37.8 percent) and  
Colorado (38 percent). But New Hampshire also has women in leadership:  
a woman House speaker, a woman Senate president, and a woman majority  
whip. The congressional delegation is 50 percent female, including one  
of only 17 women in the US Senate. It's as if there was a bloodless  
coup of the state's political establishment in November, and women  
were the avatars of change."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/04/30/the_matriarchy_up_north/