First woman speaker of state House hopes to bring something different to leadership
HARRISBURG (KDKA) - On this International Women's Day, after 250 years, Pennsylvania finally has its first woman speaker of the state House of Representatives.
In her first Pittsburgh television interview since becoming speaker, Joanna McClinton tells political editor Jon Delano that she will bring something different to this office.
Last week, Philadelphia state Rep. McClinton, a Democrat, became the first woman ever elected speaker of the state House, and she joins other women taking leadership roles in the state Senate and state Supreme Court.
"Pennsylvania still has a ways to go, but it is exciting to know that [Pennsylvania Sen.] Kim Ward is our president pro temp and that our chief justice in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is a woman, Debra Todd, and that it is all happening within the same few months is pretty intriguing, and it's most exciting for the next generation," says McClinton.
McClinton is not the first Black speaker. That was Pittsburgh state Rep. K. Leroy Irvis, who was speaker in the 1970s and 80s.
But McClinton says breaking the glass ceiling is important for little girls she meets everywhere.
"It's about the next generation envisioning themselves going into these leadership roles and even larger roles that we haven't even seen occur yet," she says.
Pennsylvania has never elected a woman governor or U.S. senator and we still have not had a woman president.
McClinton does think women bring a little something to the table, although she doesn't want to generalize.
"I recognize that there's never been a woman to do this, so certainly I am going to have my own unique style that might not have been seen or modeled in the speakers of the past. But that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that style," she said.
"That means that, yes, there are times when the way women lead is a little more collaborative. It's a little less ego."
McClinton is proud of the new House rules Democrats adopted, making committees more proportional and simplifying the process to get a floor vote on bipartisan bills that used to be blocked by committee chairs.
"This time for discharge, if you get 25 members of each party to sign the resolution, a vote will happen on that bill," she says.
As for how she hopes history will treat her, McClinton notes, "I hope that history reports my legacy as having led in such a distinguished way that there was a second woman, a third woman, a fourth woman and many other people of color."
Although Speaker McClinton is from Philadelphia, she says she spends a lot of time in the Pittsburgh region, four times already since the year began. She insists her door is as open to us as it is to Philadelphia.
