State Voices

We still have legislators referring to their colleagues as ‘little lady’ or commenting on their appearance…inappropriate things. I think that we’ve had some issues where they’ve even actually physically touched somebody, like patted them on the behind. …I will say this, I observed firsthand female leaders that would do and say things that their male counterparts have done and said for years, and it was a different standard that they were held to, and it was less acceptable because my majority leader is a former beauty queen and so they didn’t want to hear it from her. Now, I say former beauty queen – she was the most fierce legislator in the building. And she was one of my most fierce allies, but there were things that she would do and say that her male counterpart in that position in previous cycles did regularly [and] routinely and it did not come across as crass or aggressive or inappropriate. And so there was certainly a double standard. …There certainly still is a culture internally…between legislators and also between legislators, advocates, lobbyists, [and] whatnot, that we had to constantly be acutely aware of and ready to react [to]. …I think that men, and in particular my white male counterparts, had a much less [of a] challenging transition [to political leadership] than, I think, minorities and women would have, and that continues to be a challenge."

[The 2018 election] really did push a lot of other women to run because I think there is something to ‘You have to see it to be it,’ right? You have to see other people do it successfully. And in a way that you think, ‘Well, I can do that.’ I think after I won – here I am. I’ve got two little kids and I’m just like everybody else. And so if I could do it, then definitely other women could, and a lot of women jumped into running [for office] at that point."

The Republican man could go up [to the well of the legislature], be agitated, say stupid stuff, [but then] I’d get up there [and] I’d be a little agitated and I remember one time I came down and the [Republican] majority leader said, ‘You know, it’s really not a good look for you.’ Or I had a supporter who said to me, ‘Jen, I love you. But you always seem so angry when you’re giving a speech.’ And I said, ‘Because I am.’ If I’m at a point where I feel like I have to stand up and say something, …I have done all of the reasonable things I can possibly do to try not to say anything and call people out. But that’s my job. And yeah, I’m mad. Yeah, I’m just like your mama when she gets mad. That’s okay. We as women, we don’t have to respond to that and change our behaviors. Yeah. But we do, right? We absolutely do."

[I] walked into that Senate chamber and it was almost palpable in terms of, ‘Who do you think you are, lady? You’re out of your biblical way.’ And I was really very, very surprised because…it was 2018…and I’d been a lawyer, I had a good reputation throughout the state and the southeast – appellate lawyer, trial lawyer, this is what I’ve worked on for 20 years. …I had something to bring to the table. And you would have thought that [I] was like some JV cheerleader that just bopped into the chamber, and that’s how they treated me. I mean, even on both sides [of the aisle] to some extent."

Women do not give money in politics. And it’s a huge issue. Because ultimately, and this is what I would tell folks is, I can be the best candidate ever, I can be the second coming of Obama and JFK, all of them together. But I will tell you, that if I do not have the money to communicate to voters and tell them what my message is or what my vision is, then it doesn’t matter, right? It’s like a tree falling in the woods. It does not matter. And for women, I think that their relationship with money, too, there’s a lot about power and emotion. They want to fall in love with the candidate. And we, as women, really need to become much more transactional."

[Being a state legislator] is not a part-time job, no matter how much they say it is. You will not make money off of this. You will lose money, especially if you’re a professional. And you need to make sure that you’re not going to lose your livelihood because it is so encompassing in terms of what it requires."

We need like an AA or something [for women officeholders]. …There’s a lot of…this emotional abuse that women [legislators] are having to deal with and they’re being gaslit every day. And so that’s where other women coming together and just saying, if for no other [reason], just to decompress for twenty minutes and say, ‘Can you believe that bullshit? Can you believe somebody would do that?’ Or, ‘Okay, let’s all of us, let’s push on social about it.’ Because if all of us do it, then it’s not just one of us being the target of all the backlash, right? Because if you’re the bad one, they come for you and you get punished."

I think that with organized labor, there’s a huge opportunity for women to really step up and become leaders. …That’s a place where women can really be a powerhouse, for lack of a better term, without being a candidate themselves."

[Young women] stop me [to talk] about what it means to see a Latina in this position of such high authority and it is so inspiring. I had one young Latina from Highland Park…write me a letter of what it meant to see me at this level in this state and [that it] makes her feel like she could…run for office some day. She felt like she could go for it because she saw me doing it. …We’re breaking down the barriers and we’re showing people that we’re here [and] that we matter and that we’re valued."

We leave a lot of talent on the table because women will get poached for other jobs because they will make [more] money [in the private sector]. So what are the other things they can get [in the public sector]? …Things like flex hours, a hybrid schedule of remote working, childcare or paid leave. …Even before the pandemic, my team and I talked about the city of Chicago doing a paid leave bank where you donate time [and] if you don’t use it at the end of the year, you could donate two or three or five days and that goes into a bank. So if someone in the city of Chicago has a death in the family or they want extra paid maternity leave or anything they could try to go and access those banks, those days."

I think for women…and especially women of color running, we need that early support faster. We need organizations that are focused on women helping solely raise money because there’s a viability test and it unfortunately has to do with money. And the way politics are now, ever since the Supreme Court made that decision, …it [is] not a fair fight or a fair playing field. And the other thing that I think is important to attribute is that when you are a person of color, woman, first generation college, you don’t have a large network…so you have to build this network to raise money off of, and so that’s something else that I think we need to help [with]."

I think what needs to happen [beyond support for women candidates] is once you’re in office, how do we support women in executive office or in the legislature to legislate or do the job? So when I was appointed as state clerk the first year, I felt very alone. They say leadership is lonely and I finally felt that, and if you’re a woman of color in executive office, it is very lonely. There’s not many of us out there to reach out to to talk to, and so I had [to] really scoop out my own support system. …I really loved being able to meet with other women executives…women that shared with me about their lessons learned and [mistakes] they’ve made and how to avoid that."