State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan works on the legislative floor during the special session. She led the powerful Revenue Committee for six years, but said she initially resisted running to be the chair until another woman – U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer – encouraged her.
Rebecca S. Gratz, ASSOCIATED PRESS
When Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen called a recent special legislative session to address soaring property taxes, it was women who largely stepped up to both advance parts of his main bill and to block his unpopular plans to raise sales and excises taxes to pay for it.
Women hold little more than a third of legislative seats in Nebraska, but they commanded the floor most days of the special session. Those who advocate for getting more women into political office say it is a sight they hope to see replicated across the country as hot-button issues such as abortion, family budgets and school curriculum and safety drive more women to consider running for office.
Republican Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, chair of the Revenue Committee, introduced Pillen’s main property tax relief plan. But had she not sought to lead the powerful committee six years earlier, she might have been left to participate from the sidelines.
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She initially resisted running for the post, she said, because she had served only two years and had not previously held a seat on the Revenue Committee. It was U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer — a former state lawmaker — who encouraged her to take the chance, noting she had been elected chair of the Transportation Committee years earlier without much experience.
“You still go into rooms where you’re the only woman there. Pretty frequently, actually,” Linehan said.
Women historically have been more reluctant than men to seek political office, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. That is still the case, she said, but states have seen a significant increase in women seeking and being elected to office in the past five to six years. Since 2018, the number of women serving in state legislatures has risen from 1,875 to 2,426 earlier this year, a nearly 30% jump, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
The trepidation of women to seek office has often been characterized as a lack of confidence. While that may have been true in generations past, the more likely reason now is that women are relying on what researchers call “relationally embedded decision making,” Dittmar said.
“Women have been much more likely to tell us they were considering how a bid for office would affect their kids and their spouses and how it might take time away from those other responsibilities of which women still have the disproportionate burden of,” Dittmar said.
Women are also more likely to consider the effects of sexist and sexual harassment and abuse that come with the job, whether that be online or even from male colleagues, she said.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha speaks during the legislative special session at the Capitol on Aug. 13. Cavanaugh hopes to welcome more women to the Nebraska Legislature next year, but she acknowledged she has found it hard to convince women she knows to seek office.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star file photo
“Women are asking themselves, ‘Is that worth what I can get done in office?’ ” Dittmar said.
Several women within the Nebraska Legislature are all too familiar with that harassment. Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat from Omaha, was stunned earlier this year when a male colleague invoked her name while reading a graphic account of rape on the floor of the Legislature. Republican Sen. Steve Halloran was found by an investigator to have violated the body’s workforce sexual harassment policy. But the finding led only to the Legislature’s male-dominated governing board issuing Halloran a letter of reprimand — a move that carried no punitive measures.
Republican Sen. Julie Slama has, like many of her female colleagues, endured an onslaught of misogynistic social media comments — including threats of sexual violence — in the five years she has served. She was also the target of a male colleague’s sexist remarks when then-Sen. Ernie Chambers, a Democrat, implied she was appointed to her seat in 2019 in exchange for sexual favors. She was 23 at the time.
Slama, one of the most conservative lawmakers in Nebraska, often argued alongside Cavanaugh and several left-leaning women in the body during the special session to help block the governor’s plan to raise sales and excise taxes, saying it amounted to a tax increase that would hurt working families.
“It is just so critical to have women in these debates because it represents a different perspective in Nebraska that hasn’t always been represented,” Slama said.
State Sen. Julie Slama speaks on the legislative floor of the Capitol during the special session on Aug. 8. Slama has, like many of her female colleagues, endured an onslaught of misogynistic social media comments — including threats of sexual violence — in the five years she has served.
Rebecca S. Gratz, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cavanaugh hopes to welcome more women to the Nebraska Legislature next year, but she acknowledged she has found it hard to convince women she knows to seek office.
“They say that when men decide to run for office, they just look in the mirror and decide to run, and a woman has to be asked something like five or six times before she’ll even consider it,” Cavanagh said. “I think oftentimes men are dismissive of our abilities, but the fact that we all can stand together, even when we’re fighting with each other, I think is what’s lending us a lot of strength in leading right now.”
By the end of the monthlong special session, the Legislature had passed only a fraction of the 50% cut to property taxes Pillen had sought. A pared-down cap on local governments’ ability to raise property tax levies remained from Linehan’s original proposal. Folded in was a measure by Sen. Jen Day, a Democrat, to front-load an existing property tax credit so that it is automatically deducted from property owners’ tax bills.
Other women in the chamber plan to push ahead during the regular session next year with their ideas for lowering property taxes. That includes a proposal by Sen. Danielle Conrad, a Democrat from Lincoln, to assess additional taxes on households that bring in more than $1 million in annual income. Another by Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha would model California’s Proposition 13, a 1978 voter-approved law that caps property tax increases.
“Budget and tax might sound dry, but it’s absolutely bread and butter issues. It’s absolutely kitchen-table economics,” Conrad said.
Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln (center) greets Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln (left) and Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha (right) during the first day of the legislative special session on July 25 at the Capitol. Women in the Nebraska Legislature largely took the reins in a recent special session called by Gov. Jim Pillen to lower property taxes.
KATY COWELL, Journal Star file photo
With women holding 18 of 49 legislative seats, Nebraska ranks 19th among states for the number of women lawmakers.
Republican efforts to target diversity and inclusion programs may be making it harder for women — even conservative women in GOP-dominated states –- to make gains in government, said Meredith Martino, executive director of Washington-based advocacy group Women in Government. Earlier this year, the Republican-led Iowa Legislature repealed an explicit requirement that the state’s decision-making bodies be balanced by gender. In South Carolina, the only three Republican women in the state Senate lost their primary elections this year.
Figures by the Center for American Women and Politics show that among women state lawmakers across the country, Democrats outnumber Republican nearly 2 to 1.
“Republicans control roughly two-thirds of the legislatures in this country,” Martino said. “Are the voices of women being included in the groups that hold the power and are making the decisions?”
Five women in the Nebraska Legislature, including Linehan, will not return next year because of term limits. Slama, a new mother, announced she would retire at the end of this year. It is impossible to know whether women will lose or gain seats in the November election, but a dozen legislative races have at least one woman candidate.
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Top Journal Star photos for September 2024
Wahoo players pray in the locker room ahead of their match against Ashland-Greenwood on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Wahoo High School.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln Southeast’s Zayvion Campbell (left), Lincoln Southwest’s Nathan Mensah (center) and Southeast’s Mason Mehta (right) dive after the ball in the end zone during the second quarter on Friday at Seacrest Field. The play resulted in a Lincoln Southwest touchback.
KATY COWELL, Journal Star
Ian Plumlee, of Lincoln, dances with his daughter, Josephine, 4, as Sandy Creek Pickers performs during the Nebraska Bluegrass Concert Series on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, on Nebraska Innovation Campus.
KATY COWELL Journal Star
Jeff Gold speaks after being installed as the University of Nebraska’s ninth president during an investiture ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Junior Dylan Zephier (center) dances with senior Jordyn Guse next to senior Helina Cooper (back left) and freshman Liam Hoffschneider during a Unified music class, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, at East High School.
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola walks in the Legacy Walk on Saturday outside Memorial Stadium.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
A great blue heron perches on a rock in the shallow water of Holmes Lake on Tuesday.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Nebraska’s Leyla Blackwell (11) throws a volleyball into the stands before the match against TCU on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at the Bob Devaney Center.
KATY COWELL Journal Star
The Huskers run on to the field to kickoff the game against UTEP on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Nebraska’s MJ Sherman (48) sacks UTEP’s Skyler Locklear (9) during the first quarter of the UTEP game on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium.
KATY COWELL Journal Star
Norfolk Catholic players line up on the field before during the game against Bishop Neumann on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, at Bishop Neumann in Wahoo.
KATY COWELL Journal Star
Nebraska’s Isaiah Neyor (18) catches a 59-yard touchdown pass while defended by UTEP’s Jaylon Shelton (9) in the second quarter, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly (2) watches a husker light show as a highlight reel of last year plays before the match on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, at the Devaney Sports Center.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln Christian’s Truman Paulsen holds the Spirit Sword after defeating Lincoln Lutheran on Friday at Aldrich Field.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
New University of Nebraska-Lincoln students run out onto the field during the tunnel walk tradition at Memorial Stadium on Friday.
KATY COWELL, Journal Star
Framed through a children’s play set, Jordyn Anderson, 3, pushes her friend Jordan Lara, 4, in a Cozy Coupe toy at the playground outside at Las Abejitas’ location at First Lutheran Church on Friday. Las Abejitas, one of only two bilingual child care centers in Lincoln, is opening a second location at First-Plymouth Church in September.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Waverly celebrates after defeating Lincoln Lutheran in five sets Thursday at Lincoln Lutheran High School.
KATY COWELL, Journal Star
Thursday afternoon’s football game between Lincoln East and Elkhorn South was postponed due to weather. The teams will make up the game Friday at Seacrest Field.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln East’s Deacon Gehle (from left) and Presley Hall practice passing back anf forth while waiting out a rain delay at Seacrest Field on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024.
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
From left, U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer, Pete Ricketts, 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith, 1st District Congressman Mike Flood and 2nd District Congressman Don Bacon attended the annual summit hosted by the Nebraska, Omaha and Lincoln chambers of commerce on Thursday at Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
Runners, including Tyler Pooschke (first left) and Mak Krause (right) are led by run lead Trevor White (first right) as they take off along the Billy Wolff Trail for the first-ever run held by the Telegraph Run Club on Wednesday. The new run club is meant to be a welcoming, open and free to any who wishes to join.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Nebraska’s Nash Hutmacher hands a football back to Henry Erikson of Beatrice, 8, and Brent Erikson during football fan day, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, at Hawks Championship Center.
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
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