Western New York's first ladies of almost everything

Nov 29, 2008 (The Buffalo News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- URS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- This is the best of times, for women in Western New York, and it's the worst of times.

Look around and you'll see why: stunning achievement is mixed with stagnation.

Women in politics on the national and state levels -- like Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- are blazing trails. But back home in Buffalo, no woman has yet helmed a major political party.

Women here occupy top jobs at hospitals, nonprofit organizations and colleges. But no woman has ever held the reins as mayor of Buffalo or Erie County executive.

Women in the Buffalo area have opened their own high-profile firms in fields such as law and advertising. Yet no woman has served as district attorney, Buffalo police commissioner, or Erie County sheriff.

You might say that, in 2008, women in Western New York stand at a curious juncture: So much history in the past, so much ground left to cover.

"Women continue to make strides in Western New York," said Lynn M. Marinelli, who in 2006 became the first woman elected to chair the Erie County Legislature. "But women have a ways to go still."

Here is a look at the women who brought us forward to the region we are today by being the first in their field, This list is not comprehensive. Think of it more as a collection of thought-provoking examples -- designed to enlighten, surprise, and maybe even impress.

Lynn Marinelli: First female Legislature Chair

Marinelli, who once dreamed of being a journalist, has always had a sharp eye on issues of gender equality.

She directed the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women under Dennis Gorski's administration, and while serving as a legislator initiated a change in the body's rules to incorporate gender-neutral language. Later, she worked on revising the county charter, and also made sure that document was gender-neutral.

In 2006, Marinelli -- a Town of Tonawanda native -- achieved her own notable "first," when she was voted chairwoman of the Legislature.

"I'm privileged to be the first women to chair the Legislature and serve in an era with other competent women," said Marinelli, a Democrat, "who have achieved groundbreaking -- or ceiling-cracking -- posts in our community and the larger global society."

Marinelli has also made it one of her missions to help elect other women to public office.

"I would consider my best legacy in public service to be an inspiration to other women to run and serve the public," she said, "in what I still consider a noble profession."

Helen Rodgers: First woman to graduate from UB Law

When Helen Z.M. Rodgers received her law diploma, it was a double first. Not only was she one of the first two women to graduate from UB's Law School in 1897 -- along with her friend Cecil Weiner; together they were dubbed the "sisters-in-law" -- but she also ranked first in her graduating class.

Rodgers grew used to firsts. She was one of the first women to practice law in Buffalo, the first to argue an appeal in the Court of Appeals as well as a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the first president of the association of Western New York's women lawyers.

A politically active woman by any age's standard, Rodgers was one of the city's earliest suffragettes, arguing for the right of women to vote. She even ran for Congress in 1938 but was defeated. That year she also campaigned across the state for GOP gubernatorial candidate Thomas E. Dewey.

Rodgers liked Dewey for reasons other people admired her: a crisp clarity of mind and what she called an "absence of blah." That was pure Rodgers: nothing was ever blah about her, and her string of accomplishments proved it. She died in 1960 and is buried in Forest Lawn.

Teresa Majors: First female partner at a Buffalo firm

For Teresa Majors, working as a tax accountant in New York City brought mixed feelings.

Yes, she was progressing rapidly at one of the country's premier firms. But, looking around, she saw very few models of the kind of success -- career excellence plus family balance -- she wanted to achieve.

"Honestly, I didn't have any role models," said Majors, 48, of Williamsville. "There was a lot of talk about "you can become a partner,' but there was really no support for it."

Majors moved back to Buffalo, her hometown, and soon after joined Dopkins & Company, a respected Western New York accounting firm. In November 2006, Majors registered an important first: she became the first female partner at Dopkins in its 53-year history.

As partner, Majors is charged with overseeing the firm's operations and making decisions on behalf of the company and its 135 employees. She does it all while reserving family time with her husband, former sports broadcaster Jim Majors, and the couple's 8-year-old son, Nolan.

It's a balancing act, but Majors said she would urge any young woman to try for such a work-life blend. She hopes her own efforts will enable younger women to follow in her footsteps -- all the way to the partner's table.

"I think they do need a role model. The idea that, "If she can do it, I can do it,'aEURs" she said. "I encourage women ... to try to figure out how to make it work."

Charlotte Mulligan: First to start a woman's club

Charlotte Mulligan may have come from the best of Buffalo's society, but she found her life's calling among the worst. She was a pioneer among the city's prominent ladies of charity -- even though she made her name as a "first" in another arena altogether: the social club.

Mulligan was educated at the Buffalo Female Academy, and, at 17, taught Sunday school to "young rowdies" at the First Presbyterian Church. Later, noticing that many young men in Buffalo were alcoholic, out of work, or homeless, Mulligan founded the "Guard of Honor," an organization that helped needy men find work, health, sobriety and self-esteem.

Mulligan was ahead of her time in other ways. In 1894, she founded the Twentieth Century Club, the city's first private club for women. The club was a place for Buffalo's brightest and most well-connected women to meet, hear lectures and concerts, and work together for common causes (such as the $1 million in war bonds club members sold in the 1940s).

It was "a woman's club as good, as snooty as any man's club," reported the Buffalo Times in 1936. "It had never been done before, and it brought salvos of applause from all parts of the country."

Mulligan died in 1900. The Guard of Honor inscribed these words on a bronze tablet in her memory: "She hath done what she could."

Crystal D. Peoples: First woman majority leader of Legislature

In 1997, Democrats in the Erie County Legislature elected Peoples as majority leader, making her the first woman -- and the second African-American, after Roger Blackwell -- to hold that powerful post.

During her tenure, Peoples, who had joined the Legislature body in 1993, won praise as a savvy consensus builder who, while true to her East Side roots, could build connections with others from around the city and in the suburbs.

"One thing that's important in governing," said Peoples at the time, "is to build a consensus and negotiate rather than fight. I bring these qualities."

Peoples, who began her career as a small business owner on the East Side, now represents Buffalo in the Assembly's 141st District.

She has built a reputation for focusing on issues of economic development, housing, health care and the quality of education in the city.

"The issues I've tried to focus on are issues that ... affect the lives of the masses instead of the lives of a few," she said in 2002, when running for the seat she currently holds.

Elizabeth Capaldi: First female provost at UB

Elizabeth Capaldi hit the University at Buffalo like a whirlwind -- and, in the process, became the highest-ranking woman ever at the university.

Capaldi arrived in 2000, from the University of Florida, to take on the job of UB provost: the university's chief academic officer and second in command.

Capaldi distinguished herself by her hard-driving work ethic, constant e-mail communication and decisive manner. She became a public face of the university as she pushed for projects including the bioinformatics program at UB. She also stressed UB's role as a research university, and pushed faculty members to win more research grants.

Capaldi, who holds a doctorate in experimental psychology, ruffled feathers in some quarters at UB by her management technique. But she defended her style, saying that it got things accomplished. "My job is the university's best interests," she told The News. "That isn't always your best interest from your point of view."

In 2003, the university named a new president, John B. Simpson, and Capaldi moved to Albany to become vice chancellor of SUNY. Today, she is provost at Arizona State University.

Alfreda Slominski: First female comptroller

Alfreda Slominski, the daughter of a Polish barber, seemed to bump into "firsts" no matter where she turned during her storied political career.

First woman to run for an at-large seat on the Common Council. First woman to run for mayor on a major party line. First woman to be elected Erie County comptroller -- a post she held for 20 years.

Through it all, Slominski conducted her business with an independent, determined attitude -- forget John McCain, she was the original Straight Talker -- that won legions of fans among the citizenry, even while it made some public officials grit their teeth. The Republican Slominski was known to criticize wastefulness no matter what political party it arose in; she was famous for installing a time clock in her own department to keep an eye on employees.

"I'm always in the middle of a controversy," she said in 1989, shortly after being elected to her fifth term. "I don't lie awake and think of ways to be controversial. I say it the way it is, and that makes me controversial."

Jane Meade Welch: First society columnist

American history and Buffalo society might not have much in common, but Jane Meade Welch was an expert on both.

And, when she started a newspaper career as a columnist for the Buffalo Courier, as editor David Gray was handing the reins of the paper to Edwin Fleming, she became a first in Buffalo: the first woman to have a society column in a daily newspaper.

Welch, whose next-door neighbor on Delaware Avenue was Mark Twain, entertained readers for years with her columns, which displayed a "keen analytical mind" and "brilliant wit."

Her skills transferred equally well to the public platform, and Welch became a lecturer on American history much in demand across the state and all over the world. She delivered a series of popular lectures at Cambridge University and stayed while doing so in the home of the American ambassador in London.

Back home, she gave a speech on Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Twentieth Century clubhouse which was talked about for years. She died in 1931.

Liz Dribben: First female TV news anchor

Dribben, who grew up on Buffalo's West Side, always wanted to do one thing in life: ask questions.

"When I was 2 1/2, somebody asked my grandmother, "Does she always ask so many questions?'aEURs" said Dribben. "I was always interviewing people, even from the earliest age. It was a natural thing."

So it should have surprised nobody when, in 1964, she became the first woman to anchor a news broadcast in Buffalo. That was at Channel 7, where Dribben did a solo morning newscast, and later increased her profile in the community by co-hosting the popular "Dialing for Dollars" morning show.

Dribben left Channel 7 in 1969 and moved to New York, where she landed at CBS Radio and crafted a respected career as an interviewer and producer, working with leading journalists such as Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Mike Wallace.

Looking back on her cracking of the glass ceiling in local television, Dribben doesn't mince words. "It was tough," she said. "It wasn't easy."

Maria Lehman: First woman to be public works commissioner

Lehman, a talented engineer who has carved out a burnished career in the region, made history in 2000 when she was named by Joel Giambra to the position of commissioner of public works for Erie County.

Just 39 at the time, she became the first woman to hold that post as leader of one of the biggest and most powerful branches of county government.

Before joining the Giambra administration, Lehman worked at URS Corp., a firm with 400 offices worldwide, including in Buffalo.

A UB graduate, Lehman also achieved a notable first in 1990 when she was named president of the Buffalo Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Today, Lehman, an Orchard Park resident, is back in the private sector. She also serves on the Orchard Park School Board.

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We know that our readers will know of many more women in Western New York who achieved "firsts" in the past -- or that are doing so, right now. Please tell us about them, and share your suggestions with other readers at the ArtsBeat blog at www.buffalonews.com.

cvogel@buffnews.com

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