Dozens of Montgomery County’s female leaders honored the power of women Friday during an event celebrating International Women’s Day at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown.
The women packed the blackbox theater at the arts center for a program coordinated by Montgomery County Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles (D-At-large) and co-hosted by the other five women on the majority-female council – Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) and councilmembers Marilyn Balcombe (D-Dist. 2), Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5), Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) and Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7).
The event, “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion,” featured Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) as its keynote speaker.
“[We were voted in] by a sea of women who were pissed off,” Sayles said to cheers from the crowd during her opening remarks. She referenced the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade as one of the recent catalysts that is driving more women to run for public office.
Sayles turned her microphone over to Morgan Alexis Johnson, a student at Spark Matsunaga Elementary School in Germantown, who read a poem entitled “Remember The Children” that won her an award in the 2023 Girl Power contest hosted by the Montgomery County Commission for Women.
“When you try to leave women and girls out, we won’t back down, we will speak out. Because when you try to bring us down and make us frown, we will use our kindness to turn the world around,” read Johnson, who received a standing ovation.
During her keynote address, Lierman noted “there are still glass ceilings to break, but if we work together, we can break them.”
She emphasized the importance of elevating women in the workforce by recognizing that women are drivers of the economy, ensuring they have a seat at the table and working to recognize and eliminate the barriers that prevent them from succeeding financially. Lierman is the state’s first female comptroller.
Lierman said she was concerned about reports that more women in Maryland are leaving the workforce than the national average, and said she is working to identify barriers.
“We can’t recover without women in the workplace,” Lierman said, referencing economic setbacks from the pandemic.
The second half of the event featured roundtable discussions in which speakers posed questions on education, economic development, public safety and public health for attendees to discuss with those seated near them. Speakers included the councilmembers as well as Dr. Kisha Davis, the county health officer; Sylvia Henderson, president of Montgomery Women and CEO of MindTeam Solutions Inc.; Dee Richards, assistant fire chief for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service; and Anne Khademian, executive director of the Universities at Shady Grove.
“What does a firefighter look like? What does a police officer look like? History would say I don’t look like a firefighter,” Richards told the audience. “But we’ve gotten there because we deserve to be there.”
Mink spoke to sexism she has faced in office, noting that sometimes people will think male members of her staff are the council member insetad of her.
“We are exactly where we need to be and we’re not going to apologize for it,” Mink said.
Davis shared the story of her 105-year-old grandmother, who was a single mom and career woman in Montgomery County who faced racism and sexism. She said her grandmother ultimately succeeded because she had the support of the women around her. She said that it’s important to ensure everyone’s rights to health care and housing so they also can succeed like her grandmother did.
“She was a pearl that formed under pressure,” Davis said.
The event concluded with a call to action from Sayles, who encouraged attendees to vote “yes” on the proposed Maryland constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion as a right in the state constitution, and to continue to advocate for the passage of a federal Equal Rights Amendment.
“Continue to take up space. Continue to use your voice,” Sayles said.