Photo by Toby Talbott
Emerge Vermont was founded in 2013 by former Governor Madeleine Kunin. In honor of her, and as part of Women’s History Month, we need to recognize a milestone that recently passed which went largely unnoticed. Forty years ago, on January 10, 1985, Madeleine Kunin became the first woman governor of Vermont. Since then, there has not been another woman elected to that office.
Governor Kunin was a trailblazer. She was the first person to represent her newly created district in Burlington in the House and the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee.
She became the second woman lieutenant governor of Vermont in 1979 (and ninth woman in US history), serving two terms (Consuelo Bailey was the first, in 1955; she was also the second woman lieutenant governor in US history).
In 1982, Kunin became the third woman to run for governor of Vermont. The first woman ran only eight years earlier: Martha Abbott in 1974. Stella Hackell was the second woman to run, in 1976.
While Kunin didn’t win her first bid for governor, she was successful in 1984, becoming only the eighth woman governor in US history and serving concurrently with only three other women governors. She was also the first woman governor in the US to be elected to three terms.
Since Kunin’s time in office, only six other women have secured a major party nomination for governor: Ruth Dwyer (1998 and 2000), Gaye Symington (2008), Sue Minter (2016), Christine Hallquist (2018), Brenda Siegel (2022), and Esther Charlestin (2024). Several women ran unsuccessfully in primaries or as minor party candidates: Rebecca Holcombe (2020), Brenda Siegel (2018), Deb Markowitz and Susan Bartlett (both in 2010), Emily Peyton (multiple years), Patricia Hejny (2004), Marilynn Christian (2002), Amy Berkey (1998), and Mary Alice Herbert (1996).
And that’s all. Only 17 women have run for governor of Vermont in our state’s history. Only nine women since 1974 have secured a major party nomination. Only one won.
Why so few? Since 1791, only 19 women have served in statewide or federal office or legislative leadership: four Speakers of the House, two Senate Pro Tem, two Attorneys General, three Treasurers, three Secretaries of State, four Lieutenant Governors, one Governor, and one Congresswoman. Madeleine Kunin served both as Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Becca Balint served as Senate Pro Tem and now serves as Vermont’s first and only woman US Representative.
In the Legislature, Vermont is doing better. This biennium, 76 of Vermont’s 180 legislators are women (42%), a 3% decrease from the last biennium’s highest-ever level of 46%. Vermont is now #10 in the US for the percentage of women state legislators, down from #5.
At the local level, women’s representation is also low. A 2021 UVM study estimated that only a third of town selectboard members are women. Statewide data about women’s representation on selectboards and school boards isn’t available. Our Secretary of State’s office doesn’t collect information on the gender (or age or race) of any elected officials. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
With such low numbers, Vermont has yet to normalize women serving in elected office the way we’ve normalized men serving. The lack of women at the top is daunting to those who aspire to serve but have few role models. The less Vermonters see women leaders in elected positions, the less inclined they will be to vote for them.
But the bench is getting deeper. There are many highly qualified, strong women leaders serving throughout Vermont government and in the nonprofit and private sectors who would be excellent chief executives. The few statewide elected women we have had, have been (and are) exemplary leaders. And thanks to training programs like Emerge Vermont, more women are preparing to run for office than ever before.
Historically, Vermont’s political landscape has been bleak for women gubernatorial candidates, but there’s some room for optimism. Vermonters recently re-elected women to the offices of Attorney General, Secretary of State, and US Representative.
The 2026 election season isn’t that far away, and there are many strong women leaders who may—and should—step up to run. Our state’s political parties and Vermonters must continue this positive trend by supporting and electing strong women who run for the office of governor. Governor Kunin shattered that ceiling 40 years ago. Let’s make sure its sharp edges don’t prevent more women from getting through it.