WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - WRITING WOMEN BACK INTO HISTORY

(MUSIC PLAYS)

No Audio: Oscar B. Jackson - Administrator and Cabinet Secretary of Human Resources and Administration, Oklahoma OPM.

Oscar B. Jackson:  March is Women's History Month. This really provides a wonderful opportunity for Oklahomans to remember Katherine Anne Barnard, and thanks to the very special activities of the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women, we know as Kate Barnard the first woman in American history elected to state office as a first Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in 1907, which was the only position the 1907 Oklahoma constitution permitted a woman to hold. 

It's interesting to note that she could not vote for herself in the 1907 election, but she overwhelmingly received more votes than the first governor of Oklahoma, Charles Haskell. 

No Audio: Women In State Government

There are approximately 37,000 state employees working in 128 agencies, boards, commissions in state government. And I was really surprised when I looked at the list of female agency directors that 44 of 128 are female. Women represent 50% or more of employees in all EEO occupational categories, such as officials and administrators, professionals, paraprofessionals, technicians and administrative support. 

Within the Office of Personnel Management, women represent 70% of all OPM employees and they hold several key leadership positions. The situation in the Office of Personnel Management is probably not much different than you'd find elsewhere in state government, where women hold significant positions and are employed at a fairly high level. Women in state government have a significant presence. In fact, it's kind of interesting to note that about 57.5% of all state employees are female, and that number has increased slightly every year, year after year. 

No Audio: The Department of Human Services

No Audio: Raymond Haddock - Chief Coordinating Officer, Vertically Integrated Services Division, OKDHS.

Raymond Haddock: I started working for DHS in 1971, September of 1971. I went to work as a case worker in a small county in southern Oklahoma -Bryan County, Durant. At the time I went to work, I was the third male employee of the county office, and then for a while we were the only males in that county, probably 40 - 50 employees in the county. All of the leadership, the county director, all the supervisors, even the field rep down there at that time was female. So my experience early on was, you know, it was predominately female. 

Mr. Rader was the Director for all of those years. We all know the history of Mr. Rader. But, you know, there were several females that were top administrators, Deborah Roth, Pauline Mayer, Vera Alder, Amanda Rogness. So there were a lot of them that are just giants among our agency that helped form us and help make us what we are. 

I think males and females - I think you've got good leaders and it's not gender specific. I believe it takes compassion. I think it takes the ability to guide other people, mainly with your behavior. You know, you lead by example. The top administrators are the officers that report directly to the Director. Two of the officers are female, Paula Hearn and Connie Schlittler. 

I think it is probably the best that it's been, yet, with that mix. Paula and Connie bring great leadership skills to the agency, and when we have discussions, you know, they always are able to add their viewpoint and I think it just makes us much more effective, you know, having both of them in their positions. I think our agency greatly benefits from the mix of male and female, and we're predominately female, but I believe there's enough males that work for our agency that, you know, we benefit from that mix. I believe we really help each other. 

I personally think that one of the great strengths of our organization is the leaders that we have. When you look at the statistics for just the top administrators within the agency, it is predominately female. In fact, I think the split at the end of the last report I've seen is it's 70% female, 30% male, and I believe it's that mix - I believe that's our strength.