Democrat Cindy Friedman won a decisive victory Tuesday when she won the special election to fill the late Senator Kenneth Donnelly's seat in the Massachusetts Senate.
Friedman defeated Green-Rainbow party candidate Ian Jackson Tuesday, winning 89 percent of the vote.
Friedman's win increases the percentage of women in leadership roles in the state legislature, but according to Professor Erin O'Brien, chair of the political science department at UMass Boston who teaches a women in politics course, we are still a far cry from gender equity.
"While we're very happy with Cindy Friedman's election to the state Senate, she said, "it's great to celebrate that and we should. ...But it's not to say that gender equity has occurred. It's still the fact that only 25 percent of our state legislature is female."
O'Brien, who contributes to WGBH News' Mass Politics Prof blog, said that figure puts Massachusetts in the middle of the pack when it comes to comparing the bay state to the country's other state legislatures. She added, "It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it is progress."
To listen to the entire interview between UMass Professor Erin O'Brien and WGBH's Marilyn Schairer click on the audio file above.
