Athens’ leading lady might just be former city councilwoman Nancy Bain, who saw female majorities in council come and go in Athens for nearly 30 years.
Even a few Republicans, too, she joked.
But during her tenure with Athens City Council from 1984 to 2011, she said she learned that Athens puts its ladies first in respect and representation.
Council currently has a democratic female majority, with Councilwomen Jennifer Cochran and Chris Knisely, both at-large representatives, and Chris Fahl and Michele Papai representing the 3rd and 4th wards of the city. This majority has occurred before, Bain noted, adding that the city is better for it.
This notion is something Bain passed down to Knisely when she mentored her.
“Council isn’t much of a stepping stone to anything, it’s more like public service,” Bain said. “Several of us decided that since (Chris) was active in the league of women voters here that she might have been a good candidate, so we asked her.”
Bain said that because acting as a city council member requires a great deal of negotiating on issues that are not typically of the public’s interest, council needs anyone and everyone who is interested to serve.
Whether man or woman, she added.
But Cochran said women sometimes are the most fitted to make these decisions.
“When there are issues that might be relevant to female safety, I think we have a very different perspective,” Cochran said. “I think it’s important that women are well represented, and fairly represented, in all offices — not just city council.”
Athens Clerk of Council Debbie Walker, City Auditor Kathy Hecht, County Auditor Jill Thompson and Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, are just a few other women Cochran cited as leading the Athens area to fair representation in the decision making process.
Knisely said she’s honored to be a part of the mix, though she said the city still has strides to make. She said many Athens women have been offended by what she referred to as “sexually demeaning posters at Fests,” though she said the issue has not been brought before council.
“It’s been a great learning experience,” Knisely said. “I’m humbled by it. When I came to Athens 17 years ago, Nancy Bain was quite the role model for me.”
Bain, who also worked in the Geology department at Ohio University as a professor, said Athens has almost always been fair to women as a, “typically liberal town.”
However, she felt prompted to become the first director of the Women and Gender Studies department at OU in 1978.
“The times are definitely changing,” Bain said. “Women have a lot more opportunities to take in Athens, especially with public office, and they’re seizing them.
“It used to be black and white here; now it’s rainbow.”
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