Gretchen Whitmer makes her way through the crowd talking with protesters during the Women's March on Jan. 21, 2018, at Michigan State Capitol. Activists listened to speakers and rallied through peaceful protest.
—The state capitol was moved to Lansing in 1847, and the city was officially founded in 1859.Since the capitol's founding, women began being integrated into universities, earned the right to vote in 1920, and have taken public office, beginning in 1950.
From the first woman representative to the first woman governor of Michigan, here’s a timeline of how we got to where we are today.
1950 - Ruth Thompson - First Michigan woman to serve as a U.S. Representative
In 1950, Thompson was elected as a Republican to represent Michigan’s 9th Congressional District.
She was reelected twice and served from 1951-1957. In addition to being Michigan’s first woman in Congress, she was the first woman to serve on the House Judiciary Committee.
1998 - Jennifer Granholm - First woman Attorney General of Michigan
After her win against then-US Attorney John Smietanka in 1998, Granholm was sworn into office in January 1999. She succeeded Attorney General Frank J. Kelley, a Democrat who served nine terms in the position.
In office, she established Michigan’s High Tech Crime Unit to focus on internet crimes, and encouraged state agencies to continue the fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. She also imposed regulations to prevent gasoline prices from rising too dramatically.
2002 - Jennifer Granholm - First woman Governor of Michigan
After defeating James Blanchard and David E. Bonior in the Democratic primary, Granholm faced Dick Posthumus in the 2002 general election.
She was sworn in Jan. 1, 2003, as the first woman to be elected as governor of Michigan, and the third governor that was not a U.S.-born citizen.
In her first term, she pushed for education reform and encouraged parents to do more to help their children during early development. She focused on education from birth to five years old with Project Great Start.
Additionally, Granholm pushed students to consider post-secondary education and implemented The Michigan Merit System, which increased high school graduation standards.
Granholm won reelection in 2006 against Dick DeVos and used her second term to focus on the economy.
In 2007, she proposed the No Worker Left Behind Act, which provided two years of community college or free training to unemployed workers.
Granholm also responded to a resolution passed by the Detroit City Council in May to have Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick removed from office, which resulted in his resignation.
Granholm was term-limited and she was succeeded by Rick Snyder in 2011.
2018 - The Women’s Wave
Gretchen Whitmer, Dana Nessel, Elissa Slotkin, Haley Stevens, Rashida Tlaib are some of the women that were elected into office in 2018 and began their terms January 2019.
Whitmer defeated Republican Bill Schuette for governor, receiving 53.3 percent of the votes. She campaigned on road repairs, lowering the costs of post-secondary education, and protecting the healthcare of people with pre-existing conditions.
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In her first State of the State address, she called for bipartisanship to ensure progress will be made during her tenure as governor.
Growing up, nutritional sciences freshman Shelbie Schwall looked up to figures like Debbie Stabenow and Jennifer Granholm, and said that it's important to have women in positions of power for children to look up to.
"I think it’s extremely important to have women in higher positions, especially growing up," she said. "Having a woman governor shows girls especially ... having that woman figure shows a lot to girls.”
Business-preference sophomore Abigail Olson said that having women in positions of power is more beneficial than daily motivations.
"You can be told that you can do great things, but actually seeing it happen, seeing women become women of power, and of high esteem can really motivate girls to think that they actually can,” she said.
Joining Whitmer in 2018 was Dana Nessel, who defeated Republican Tom Leonard for Attorney General and began her term on the first of this year.
Nessel is the second woman to hold the office of Michigan Attorney General after Granholm and is the first openly gay person to be elected into state office in Michigan.
Since taking office, she has joined federal lawsuits against a 2017 change to the Affordable Care Act that exempted religious groups from providing birth control coverage for employees.
Additionally, Nessel plans to reverse the loosening of environmental regulations in the state after a 2018 lame-duck session.
Jocelyn Benson took office Jan. 1 after defeating Republican challenger Mary Treder Lang. She was inspired to run for the office after working with Secretaries of State from around the country while researching for her book, “State secretaries of state: Guardians of the Democratic Process,” published in 2010.
The 2018 elections resulted in a record five women serving as members of the state’s US House delegation. Debbie Dingell and Brenda Lawrence were both sworn into office in 2015, and were reelected in Michigan’s 12th and 14th Congressional districts, respectively.
This year marked the beginning of Elissa Slotkin, Haley Stevens, and Rashida Tlaib’s first terms in office, serving in Michigan’s 8th, 11th and 13th districts respectively.
Rashida Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, and joins Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar as the first Muslim women in Congress.
“You get outside viewpoints, because if you just get a certain type of people, then you only get a certain type of view, and our country is so diverse and that needs to be recognized," said Olson. "It's really important to get those views represented.
