At the Democratic National Convention last month, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smashed through the "glass ceiling" to become the first woman nominee of a major political party.

While women have held high state and county offices in counties bordering Carbon, no county woman has held the position of U.S. representative, state senator, judge of the court of common pleas or county commissioner.In 1966, Democrat Marguerite "Peggy" Bonner became her party's nominee to succeed her deceased husband, State Rep. John "Ike" Bonner," who had died while in office, but she was defeated by Republican Joseph Semmel in the general election.It was just this year that Jean Engler became the first woman elected to serve as Carbon County district attorney. Engler was appointed last fall to fill the unexpired term of her predecessor, Gary Dobias, then successfully won a full four-year term at last November's general election.In 2014, Christine Holman became district attorney of Schuylkill County, the first woman to hold this office.Pennsylvania and Carbon, in particular, have become slow to embrace female officeholders.On top of that, few Carbon women have sought these higher offices. Many thought Peggy Bonner would have an excellent chance to win the 1966 election, not only on her own merits, but because of sympathy votes as a result of her husband's untimely death.There has never been a female governor or U.S. Sen. in Pennsylvania. That could change this year if Democrat Katie McGinty defeats incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in this November's general election. At this point, the contest is considered a tossup.The current 18-member U.S. House of Representatives delegation from the commonwealth contains no women, although Allyson Schwartz of Montgomery County served until 2014 when she made an unsuccessful run for governor.In her acceptance speech, Clinton said, "When any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."Each of the four counties surrounding Carbon has female judges on the court of common pleas. Of Schuylkill County's seven judges, Jacqueline Russell is the lone female, and of Lehigh County's nine judges, two are women - Carol McGinley and Maria Dantos.Monroe has the only president judge among local counties - Margherita Patti-Worthington. She and Jennifer Harlacher are the two women among the six Monroe judges.Northampton County has the most female judges among local counties - three of nine (Kimberly McFadden, Paula Roscioli and Jennifer Sletvold).Northampton also produced the state's first female state senator when Jeannette Reibman of Easton was elected in 1966 to represent the 18th District. Today, this district (which includes parts of Lehigh and Northampton counties) is represented by Lisa Boscola of Bethlehem.Boscola is one of six female state senators in the 50-member Senate, and the only one from our area.Of the 203 members of the state House of Representatives, there are 37 women, including three who represent parts of our area - Marcia Hahn, 138th District (part of Northampton County), Julie Harhart, 183rd District, who is retiring and not seeking re-election this year (parts of Northampton and Lehigh counties), and Rosemary Brown, 189th District (parts of Monroe and Pike counties).We are not saying that votes should be cast for a candidate on the basis of gender, but in our increasingly diverse society, we believe it would be a bonus if more women sought higher political office to give us a wider choice.We have some exceptionally able women serving at the municipal level as township supervisors, members of borough councils and boards of education.These are important training grounds to aspire to county office, then, possibly, to state positions. We encourage these women to consider taking this upward step.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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