Maine women have smashed through several government glass ceilings in recent decades, most recently with Gov. Janet Mills becoming the state’s first female chief executive this year. Maine’s first female chief justice, Leigh Saufley, has served in that role since 2001.
Despite this progress over the years, some language in the Maine Revised Statutes remains stuck in the past.
As House Majority Leader Matt Moonen recently discovered, Maine law still contains some outdated and — let’s be honest — inherently sexist language that refers to many officeholders using only masculine pronouns such as “he,” “him,” or “his.” Moonen has introduced legislation that would instead use gender neutral pronouns for offices such as governor and Supreme Judicial Court justices.
“These statutes are based on outdated assumptions about who will serve in some of our state’s
highest offices,” Moonen, D-Portland, told the Judiciary Committee last week. “As we all know, Governor Mills is the first woman to become governor, and she certainly won’t be the last. As for the courts, Chief Justice Saufley has been in her role for more than 17 years, and yet our statute still assumes that the Chief Justice is male!”
The male-specific language not only fails to recognize the gains made by Maine’s many female leaders, it’s also inaccurate, plain and simple. Clearly, it’s time for an update.
“Words are no small thing. They have the power to heal or harm, uplift or belittle, inspire or discourage, both implicitly and explicitly,” Mills testified in support of the bill last week. “To me, this legislation is about every Maine woman and girl knowing that she is equally deserving of the same opportunity and, equally capable of serving, as Governor of the state of Maine or as Chief, or Associate Justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.”
In her testimony in support of the bill, Saufley spoke of the history of women serving in Maine’s court system, noting that Harriet Henry was the state’s first female judge in 1973, and that there are now 18 women serving on the state courts. That still is only 29 percent of the 63 state judicial positions, but the numbers are moving in the right direction.
Moonen’s bill initially looked to update language only for the governor and judicial branch, but he later found “dozens and likely hundreds” of other masculine references in statute. An expanded version of the bill passed by the Judiciary Committee last week would have the Revisor’s Office review and update all 39 state statutes to make them gender neutral.
The Revisor’s Office, which drafts state bills and laws, has been using gender neutral pronouns when writing new legislation and amending old laws since the late 1980s. But that process has not required a comprehensive look back at all existing statutes.
Make no mistake, doing this comprehensively rather than incrementally will take some time. But starting with the obvious examples, and working with the revisor’s office to identify others on a manageable timeline, is an active and appropriate approach.
Voters approved a referendum in late 1980s that made the Maine State Constitution gender neutral, so this new push for gender-specific pronouns in statute is far from revolutionary.
This proposal isn’t pandering or social justice run amok, it’s a needed change to reflect the welcome and well-established reality that women serve in critical leadership positions within our state. Ensuring that both men and women are recognized as officeholders within our laws — as they are in real life — is no small thing.
As Saufley poetically pointed out last week, Maine and the nation are nearing two important democratic milestones. The year 2020 will be Maine’s 200th anniversary as a state, and the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
“You now have the opportunity to assure that Maine does not meet the first sunrise of 2020 without addressing the outdated gender assumptions enshrined in our laws,” Saufley told legislators.
Let’s hope they seize that opportunity — for equality, for accuracy, and for the next generation of women that will help lead our state.
