‎By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
The timing of Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s topic Thursday at the Brentwood Cool Springs Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business luncheon couldn’t have been more appropriate.

Ninety years ago to the day, on Aug. 26, 1920, women were granted the right to vote when the 19^th Amendment was adopted. Just a week earlier, on Aug. 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly, by a one-vote margin, became the decisive 36^th state to ratify the proposed amendment.

That vote took place at the historic Hermitage Hotel in downtown Nashville.

Blackburn’s topic? “The Changing Landscape of Women in Washington, D.C.”

Blackburn represents the state’s 7^th congressional district, which touches three states. She first went to D.C. in 2003, after serving as a state senator representing the 23^rd District.

“More and more women are campaigning,” she told her large, almost exclusively female audience. “More and more women are feeling empowered enough to run for office.”

Blackburn shared some statistics. Of the 260 women who have ever served in Congress, 93 of those are in office today. Today 76 women serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and 17 are in the U.S. Senate.

Unfortunately, she noted, she is the only woman ever elected in her own right in Tennessee.

Two candidates running now for seats in Congress may up that number to three she said — Charlotte Bergmann in the 9^th District and Diane Black in the 6th.

Women are playing a more significant role in the political process, Blackburn stressed, because of “kitchen table economics.”

“I call them bill-paying moms,” she said.

It’s women who pay the bills, make the purchase decisions and make healthcare decisions, Blackburn said. Today’s issues aren’t traditional women’s issues, she added. Those have taken a back seat to ones that take on the size and scope of government.

Though Tennessee can take credit for passing the 19^th amendment, Blackburn noted that the state has never had a female governor or female U.S. senator.

“Women are voting in record numbers too,” said Blackburn, who lives in Brentwood and spends her rare off days gardening, cooking and playing with her two grandchildren.

She closed her talk with a quote from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:

“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”