Voice for Women

By popular demand, U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) will make her first speech ever at Harvard today to the graduating class of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Snowe, a moderate Republican, was chosen to give the Kennedy School's Class Day speech because she is highly respected by students, says Heather P. Campion, director of the ARCO Forum.

"She is a role model for a lot of our students," Campion says. "A lot of our students have expressed a great admiration for her."

In her class day speech, Snowe will consider the question "Can we govern?"

"It's an address to the graduating students, so [Snowe] was asked to speak about issues...appropriate to students going all over the world," Campion says.

Snowe has been a rising star on the national political scene since her election to the House of Representatives in 1978, at the age of 31. Her constant focus on the vital issues of the day has won Snowe the respect of politicians and students alike. In a poll of Kennedy students, Snowe came out as the preferred class day speaker.

"An overwhelming number of students voted to hear her," Campion adds.

Snowe--who was elected to the Senate in 1994--has focused on deficit reduction, health care, trade issues and women's issues during her career. In January, Snowe was appointed to the Armed Services Committee, filling a spot vacated by former Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine), who vacated his Senate seat to become the secretary of defense.

"I am delighted to preserve Maine's traditional presence on the Senate Committee of Armed Services," Snowe says in a statement to Defense Daily. "This is a critically important committee to Maine, and will allow me to be in a strong position to advocate for a strong national defense and the 50,000 defense-related jobs in our state."

Maine is the home of Bath Iron Works, which builds several types of ships for the Navy. For the past two years, Snowe has fought successfully to maintain congressional funding for naval ships.

In addition to her efforts to maintain the military budget, Snowe has sought to reform education by lowering taxes. In November, she led a group of senators who pushed to mandate lower telecommunications rates for schools and libraries.

As a widely-known proponent for women's rights, Snowe co-sponsored the Women's Pension Equity Act. The bill, if passed, will correct current pension laws so that they take into account special patterns in women's work or caregiver roles.

The bill would protect women's pensions in the event of divorce or the death of their husbands. In addition, the Act accounts for the supposed tendency of women to change jobs frequently as they meet the demands of their families, according to National Underwriter Life and Health magazine (NULH).

"The inequality in current law is evidenced by the pension gap in our country, with 45 percent of retired men receiving pensions--compared to only 32 percent of women," Snowe said to NULH.

Most recently, Snowe has been involved in political struggles over the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill, as reported in The New York Times Magazine.