Marking the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment giving women across the United States the right to vote, 2020 was supposed to be the Year of the Woman. That didn’t really materialize as COVID-19 eclipsed all else, but, if the municipal elections are any indications, perhaps the Year of the Woman was merely postponed a year in Carroll County.
It’s been a history-making few weeks as the roll call of women who have been mayors in this county’s municipalities is about to double.
In Sykesville, a town that became incorporated and first elected a mayor in 1904, Stacy Link was elected to be the first female mayor on May 4. In Westminster, a city that was incorporated in 1818 and has sworn in more than 50 mayors, Mona Becker was elected to be the first female mayor on May 11. Julia Gouge, who became Hampstead’s mayor in 1983, was the first woman to win the top spot in a Carroll County municipality. Linda Boyer served as mayor of Mount Airy from 1986 to 1990.
The significance was not lost on Link or Becker, though they had little time to contemplate it ahead of election day given both were involved in contested campaigns in which neither outcome was assured.
Link, who had served on the Town Council since 2013, said she was buoyed by the support she received from women on election day who gave her thumbs up or pumped their fists or blew kisses. Link went on to defeat incumbent Ian Shaw, finishing with 519 votes to 408 for the two-term mayor.
“There was not one minute I wasn’t aware history was being made,” Link said, noting that it wasn’t just women who were excited and shared that she received several congratulatory messages from men who have daughters. “They made it very clear, their desire to have strong women in leadership positions to offer someone to look up to, a role model.”
A former member of Westminster’s Common Council, Becker said she didn’t make becoming the city’s first female mayor a part of her platform because there were so many other important issues to worry about. Plus, she was in the middle of a highly contentious campaign. But the moment certainly wasn’t lost on her after beating Dennis Dillon by more than 400 votes.
“Things are changing a little bit as far as the role of women in municipal government,” she said, also noting Link’s victory.
Becker and Link were hardly the only non-male winners around Carroll County. In fact, eight of the 18 council seats won during the county’s seven municipal elections this month went to women. And when Manchester goes to the polls May 18, it’s a virtual certainty incumbent Debra L. Howe will join those ranks given that she is one of only two candidates who registered to run by the filing deadlines and three councilmembers will be seated. So seven of Carroll’s eight municipalities will have elected at least one woman this time — with Union Bridge electing three.
Municipal elected positions are critical for local governing and they can also be steppingstones to higher elected offices, such as the Board of County Commissioners. Carroll has only had two female commissioners in its history. Commissioner Eric Bouchat wrote an opinion piece for the Times calling for a female-majority board to be elected in 2022. A few of his points were panned by some, but his message that more women should be county commissioners was spot on.
Maybe these recent elections were a path toward that. As Becker put it, it does feel like things are changing.
In our newspaper, we reported the Link and Becker victories with banner headlines across the top of page 1. Perhaps in the future, the headlines won’t be so big, the stories further down the page, as women winning major elections in Carroll becomes far more commonplace.