Inspiring women: Shattering the glass ceiling in politics and business

Photo / Jeff Kirlin Gov. Janet Mills, Maine’s first female governor.

Photos / Tim Greenway Patricia Weigel, president and CEO of Norway Savings Bank

Danielle Conway, first African American dean of the UMaine School of Law

Melissa Smith, CEO of WEX

Ellen Belknap leads Portland-based SMRT

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By Renee Cordes

Gov. Janet Mills signaled a new era of inclusiveness this January at her inauguration, where two Maine schoolgirls wowed the audience with a performance of Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire.”

Mills, 71, who had also been Maine’s first female attorney general, appointed eight women to her 15-member cabinet and in key advisory posts, including former House Speaker Hannah Pingree to head a new office of innovation and the future.

Helping WEX Inc. cut the ribbon on its new Portland headquarters in March on International Women’s Day, Mills expressed excitement at sharing the stage with WEX CEO Melissa Smith and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

She also introduced the crowd to Heather Johnson, Maine’s new commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, as an expert in broadband with experience in the public and private sectors. Johnson, she said, is “going to be a real fast starter here, and she’s already kicking butt.”

Maine boasts a number of female trailblazers who have broken through the glass ceiling in sectors from politics to business, offering inspiration to their contemporaries and future generations.

They’ve founded and led companies as well as institutions of higher leaning and other nonprofits, and made their mark in traditionally male-dominated industries. Too numerous to list each by name, a few stand out for their achievements.

Danielle Conway became the first African-American dean of the University of Maine School of Law in 2015, a post she is vacating this summer to become dean of Penn State’s Dickinson Law.

In Maine she’s promoted access to justice in rural areas through the Rural Lawyer Project as well as opening doors for unrepresented students through the PreLaw Undergraduate Scholars (PLUS) summer immersion program .

In the design arena, industry veteran Ellen Belknap leads Portland-based SMRT Architects and Engineers, Maine’s largest architectural firm and the only major one run by a woman.

She joined the firm in 1986 as an intern, became president in 2004 and today leads a team that’s 118 strong across four offices. Belknap has sought to foster a culture of collaboration, engagement and knowledge-sharing, telling Mainebiz last July, “I get my energy from helping people grow.”

Patricia Weigel, president and CEO of Norway Savings Bank, has a similar view. While she doesn’t think of herself as a frontrunner, she admits there are still too few women in banking’s corner office.

“Today the industry is wide open and welcoming to young women wishing to pursue a career in banking,” Weigel says. Her advice to those starting their careers today: Be curious, find mentors, accept assignments that take you out of your comfort zone, and be engaged in the workplace.

“I would also advise the young women to join organizations where women are already represented in the executive ranks,” she says. “Successful organizations recognize the value of diversity and promote strong cultures of achievement and support.”