Voting for women is not a ‘war against men’

By Guest

Dear Editor:

I strongly disagree with a letter to the editor in last week’s edition entitled “The war against men.”

The writer says that supporters of a female who is currently running against a male for the Select Board are “gender zealots” who are supporting the woman primarily because she is a woman. The writer further claims that her supporters are engaging in a “war against men.”

The letter urges voters to focus on “performance and results,” not “immutable traits” such as gender. I agree that voters should always compare the performance and results of competing candidates, but I strongly disagree that a voter is a “gender zealot” if he or she considers the possible benefits of adding a woman to a board that has been dominated by men for over 200 years.

Since the Canton Select Board was created 228 years ago, there have been over 100 board members, only four of whom were women. (Incidentally, for over 200 years the Select Board was called the Board of Selectmen and the selectperson was called a selectman.)

I was fortunate to serve with the very first Canton Selectwoman, Sheila Cheimets, in 1972. At that time, it was a three-person board. Now it has five members. Fortunately, one of them is a woman, who I believe adds fresh perspective to the board.

Sheila Cheimets was a very intelligent, well-educated selectperson. She constantly offered great insight and advice to myself and our third member, Charlie Brooks. I believe this unique perspective as a woman was very helpful to Charlie and me.

Despite the excellent service Sheila provided to the town, she went through three years of hell, solely because she was a woman. Our town administrator, a career Navy officer, constantly belittled her in public, asking her such inane questions as, “Who’s doing your job of taking care of your kids while you’re playing at being a selectman?”

Charlie Brooks and I wanted to fire him (and as the majority we had the votes to do so), but Sheila always opposed us, saying he’s a good administrator and he’s just acting like a lot of other men. We lost the female perspective when Sheila left the board.

Sheila came up with the excellent idea of joining with other towns to purchase town supplies in bulk to save money. This resulted in men phoning Sheila’s family in the middle of the night, falsely claiming that the “cheap toilet paper” purchased with other towns gave them rashes that kept them awake. That’s just one example of the constant abuse our first female selectperson received because she dared to offer a new idea to the town.

I totally agree that candidates should not be elected based solely on their gender. I’m not arguing for a quota system for elected boards, but I do believe that women often have a different perspective than men and therefore are valuable on boards. If two candidates are equally qualified and one offers the added advantage of providing a different perspective because of her gender, I don’t believe you are a “gender zealot” engaged in a “war against men” if you vote for her.

Paul A. Schneiders & Mary Jane Schneiders

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