This year 2020 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment granting some women the right to vote; while that indeed is a celebration, we would be remiss in not acknowleding that the 19th Amendment benefitted only a segment of the female population. The fight for women’s suffrage and gender parity is still evolving. Today we honor seven women who, through words and actions, have exemplified a powerful leadership, courage, and commitment to moving us all forward.
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Stephanie Hallock Cummins
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Julie Davis
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Abigail Scott Duniway
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Rev. Donna Pritchard
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Megan Rapinoe
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Judy Rose
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Christine Sinclair
Stephanie Hallock Cummins
For several decades, Portland native Stephanie Hallock Cummins has played a prominent role in the protection of Oregon’s environment. She began her career at the US Environmental Protection Agency, was a senior policy advisor to Oregon’s Governor John Kitzhaber, and served as the Director of Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality from 2000 to 2008. Stephanie has been a strong leader who embodies a leadership style that focuses on results through building relationships. Since retiring from DEQ in 2008 she has served Oregon in a variety of roles. Through the Oregon Solutions program,
Stephanie is currently helping lead a collaborative effort to protect North Portland from flooding. She also serves as vice-chair of the Oregon Board of Agriculture, which oversees policies affecting Oregon’s rural environment.
Julie Davis
Julie Davis, a successful Portland realtor, has been a community activist in Oregon for over 25 years. She helped found the non profit organization, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) in 1996 to combat a raft of anti-LGBTQ ballot measures that sought to dehumanize LGBTQ people in Oregon. As an out lesbian, Julie was BRO’s first Executive Director, a position that took great courage in that time of fear and hate. Currently BRO is the largest advocacy, education, and political organization working in Oregon to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Julie’s efforts have helped create a diverse, inclusive, and accepting community of activists to defend everyone’s basic rights.
Abigail Scott Duniway
Abigail Scott Duniway (d. 1915) was a novelist, newspaper publisher, teacher, pioneer, milliner and suffragist. She came to Oregon in 1852 and wrote a novel based on the overland experience. She campaigned for suffrage throughout the Northwest, and in 1871, started a newspaper in Portland called The New Northwest. She masterminded the suffrage campaigns in Idaho and Washington, but her efforts to win the right to vote in her home state proved more demanding. From 1884 to 1910, Oregon’s male voters defeated suffrage five times at the polls. Finally, in 1912, the initiative passed. She was the first woman to register to vote in Multnomah County, the first woman to speak before the Oregon Legislature, and the state’s first woman publisher.
Rev. Donna Pritchard
Rev. Donna Pritchard is the Senior Pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Portland. In addition to her ministry at First Church, Donna serves the greater United Methodist Church as Chair of the Western Jurisdiction’s Leadership Team. She has been a member of the Commission for a Way Forward, explained as follows: The 32-member, bishop-appointed commission was charged with finding ways through the denomination’s deep divide on homosexuality. It is offering legislative petitions for three different plans for ministry with LGBTQ individuals. The plans include the One Church Plan (recommended by the Council of Bishops), the Traditionalist Plan, and the Connectional Conference Plan.
Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe and Christine Sinclair both began their careers in the Rose City as members of the championship University of Portland Women’s soccer teams. Megan Rapinoe has become the face of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team as she led the squad to a resounding victory in the Women’s World Cup in France in July, 2019. The team is poised to take on the world again in the upcoming Summer Olympics. Beyond her matchless skill and leadership on the soccer pitch, Ms. Rapinoe has led the charge for equal pay for women in her own sport, for support for women’s sports in general and for racial, gender and economic equity and justice for all people.
Judy Rose
Judy Rose has been an active music director, accompanist, composer and singer in the Portland Metro area for many years and has a long affiliation with Aurora Chorus. She was assistant conductor with David York when the chorus was in its infancy and has performed with the chorus as an accompanist and guest artist on several occasions. Judy currently works as a music teacher for Portland Public Schools. She works hard for students, colleagues, and especially enjoys teaching all the young people who don’t see teachers who look like them. She is motivated to help others grow and believe that they can BE somebody. In 2018 Judy donated her highly successful piece, “A Jubilant Day,” to Grant High School’s Royal Blues. In the introduction to the song she was quoted as saying “I believe that getting through what we are all experiencing in the world right now, that there has to be some joy in the world, If there is to be that joy, we must create it. By creating music, poetry, dance, works of art, we are creating that joy for others to hear.”
Christine Sinclair
Christine Sinclair and Megan Rapinoe both began their careers in the Rose City as members of the championship University of Portland Women’s soccer teams. Christine Sinclair is a member and Captain of both the Canadian National Team and the Portland Thorns. She recently became the world’s all-time leader for international goals scored for men or women with 186 goals. Since she is headed to Olympics this summer and continues to play professionally, she is far from finished! At 36 and still at the top of her sport, she sets the standard for excellence, persistence, leadership and grit.
