CHEYENNE — At the end of a legislative session in the mid-1900’s a Cheyenne Democrat, Kathryn Sessions, stood up the Wyoming Senate, turned to the Republican side and asked for help.
What she wanted was for the Republicans to recruit a woman to run for the senate.
She was the only woman in the senate at that time.
A retired educator from Cheyenne, Sessions was social; she wanted someone to talk to -- political parties didn’t matter much then — and maybe to share lunch.
At that time the guys did not seem to welcome women into their club, as it were. It was kind of like high school or middle school.
Also, at that time, it was difficult to get Democrats elected.
So, that's why Sessions appealed to the majority Republicans.
That period was the nadir of women representation in the state Senate.
That changed.
In 2003, a Cheyenne attorney and Republican, April Brimmer Kunz, was elected Senate president, the first woman to hold that office.
More women at that time were running for and getting elected to state office. .
Today there are seven women senators, all Republican and a record for the 31 seat Senate. It is lame but better than in the past.
A few are Senate newbies drawn in possibly by the Freedom Caucus movement.
The three senior women Senate leaders to watch are Tara Nethercott, a Cheyenne lawyer and majority floor leader; Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, a Torrington rancher and Freedom Caucus leader; and Wendy Schuler, a retired Evanston teacher.
Nethercott and Schuler are not members of the Freedom Caucus bloc that dominates the House.
Schuler has been public about her intention to continue to be independent and represent only her constituents.
All are very competent. They are smart women. The Senate recognized Nethercott’s skills by electing her to the leadership.
Her selection reflected the existing division of the Senate into caucus and traditional Republicans. It seem to have worked out well.
But why then were not the other women assigned as chairmen of committees
Oh well. Lots of what went on the Senate this year is lost in an impenetrable fog.
We also will apparently never know nor will we ever find out why the Senate junked the governors supplemental budget with all that money for fire suppression costs.
That rejection is likely to trigger the need for a special session, an inconvenient and costly endeavor. And, I must point out, avoiding a special session was one of the reasons for the general and budget session in he first place.
But that is a separate issue and I will not harp on it today.
.At any rate, we clearly need more smart women in the legislature who will advocate for mothers, children, poor people and will make the train run on time.
So how do we get them?
A report from a national group, meanwhile, once again proclaimed Wyoming as the last in the nation when it comes to the gender wage gap.
Released in February 2025, the Employment and Earnings Gap from Wyoming A&I highlights some of these pay and industry disparities — for every dollar earned by men in the state, women only make 65 cents.
Wyoming ranks in one of the four worst states for the gender pay gap, according to the National Women’s Law Center, the report said, according to internet sources
The reason advanced as always was that men are in the higher paying occupations like oil field workers while women are in the lower paying jobs like child and health care and retail services. And that is because of Wyoming’s economy.
One way to help women out of this trap, officials said, is to encourage more women to be leaders in their professions and in holding elected office.
The idea is that they be models for young women which is a good thing.
It will take more than that, though. My answer is education. That is what makes smart Wyoming women equipped to make more money.
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Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
