Female Supremacy Articles - Page 13

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Washington women charged onto the scene in 1992, joining other women nationally in what came to be called the ``Year of the Woman'' -- when the number of women in Congress jumped from 28 to 42. Murray was elected, Gregoire became the state's first female attorney general, and Republican Jennifer Dunn went to Congress.

``Washingtonians dislike the classical, old-style, heavily partisan'' leadership style, said state Senate Minority Leader Bill Finkbeiner, a Republican. ``In the early '90s, women began to be seen as an alternative to that.''

Walsh said the populist culture in the state has created a political system that ``lets all people in.''

State Sen. Lisa Brown, who became Senate majority leader this year, said she thinks the frontier past of the state plays a part in the can-do mentality of women here.

``Women were pretty used to doing whatever they had to do. ... They hunted, they fished, they got involved,'' Brown said. ``I think it was a natural outgrowth to run for office.''

Gregoire, who last week delivered the Democrats' response to President Bush's first weekly address since he was inaugurated, said that during her run for attorney general, she encountered the attitude on the campaign trial that ``that's a man's job.''

``The question always to me was: Can you be tough enough to be attorney general?'' she said.

But in her run for governor last year, Gregoire said, no one ever questioned whether she could do the job because she was a woman.