Female Supremacy Articles - Page 13

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For now, Gregoire joins Democratic U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell as the highest-profile politicians in the state, something Walsh calls a ``landmark moment.''

``Little girls can look in the newspaper and see a picture of what the governor looks like, what a United States senator looks like,'' Walsh said. ``It looks like them.''

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.''