It’s been 100 years since Fannie Salmons’ (Bogart) historic win to become the first woman elected to the Escambia County Commission and the first elected female commissioner in Florida. Over the decades, there have been significant gains for women on county boards across the state. But, relatively, there has been few women to hold county commission seats locally.
After her election in the 1920s, Salmons Bogart remained the only woman to be elected to the Escambia County Commission for more than six decades and the only one in Northwest Florida for more than 50 years.
RELATED: Fannie Salmons' historic election 100 years ago
Mary Bogart Woltersdorf is proud of her grandmother’s accomplishment.
“I really think her legacy should be, she set a precedence for women,” Woltersdorf stated. “It’s just too bad it took so long to matriculate into our area.”
The drought ended in 1986, when Muriel Wagner became just the second woman — and first in 64 years — to be elected to serve on the board. At the time, she didn’t consider it a big deal.
“That’s interesting, because when you’re there doing what you’re doing, it doesn’t seem like a fanfare,” said Wagner. “You just try as hard as you can to do your best job and try to represent the people who elected you.”
Wagner’s election to office in the mid-1980s came on the heels of the women’s liberation movement, which helped to redefine the roles of women in society. Additionally, she said she was encouraged to run by federal discrimination lawsuits in Pensacola that led to public school desegregation and forced Escambia County to change its at-large system for local elections to single-member districts. This meant she only had to court voters in her district, District 4.
“I did go door to door, which I don’t know if anyone had done that before,” Wagner recalled. “But I had people who planned how I would go door to door and every day from July until the election.”
Prior to her election bid, Wagner had attended numerous meetings on behalf of the Pensacola Bay Area League of Women Voters and she had an interest in the county’s long-term development, with an eye on wetland’s protection.
"I had also been working, interested in the state level with comprehensive planning,” Wagner said. “So one of the first things I voted on was the county's comprehensive plan, and I think I kept them up kind of late making my decision on it.”
Wagner said she voted against the Comp Plan and was viewed as a standout on environmental issues. But she was often subjected to what was described as “good ‘ole boy” politics. And as the only woman on the board during her one term in office, she sometimes was at odds with the board’s male majority, such as when she was set to take over the rotating board chairmanship.
"My turn came and they said, ‘you can be vice-chairman.’ And I said, it’s my turn to be chairman. And, everything got quiet,” she recounted of the tense standoff. “I think it was because I was a woman; that’s how I took it.”
But this was an era when women were beginning to show up locally. In 1990, as Wagner’s term was ending in Escambia, Ira Mae Hewatt was making history as the first woman elected to the Santa Rosa County Commission. Shirley Ransom had already had a groundbreaking turn as the first woman elected to the Okaloosa County Commission in 1980.
Carolyn Ketchel is now the county’s seventh woman to serve. Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, uncles and others, she comes from a long line of men in politics, but feels women officeholders bring a certain sensibility.
“Well, I think women have a different perspective, and I think diversity is really good,” Ketchel said.
Women, according to Ketchel, have a tendency to focus on the bigger picture when it comes to the growth of their communities and have a tradition of looking at parks. As an example, she points to the Women Veterans Memorial on Okaloosa Island.
“Now, that probably would not have happened had I not been in this seat,” she began. “Because we had 20 and a half acres of beautiful land along Choctawhatchee Bay and I was trying to save the land, but also figure out what we could do with it when we decided to build statues, life size statues of women who have served since the revolutionary war.”
On getting more women to run for office, she believes there’s still a glass ceiling of sorts, with many women having to wait until after their children are raised to pursue their political ambitions. To prepare and overcome the intimidation factor, she suggests getting started by becoming informed and working on campaigns behind the scenes. And, with the growing number of women now seeking higher education, she’s hopeful for the future.
“In fact, there are more women graduating from college than men today,” Ketchel said. “So I would say in the next 50 years, we will see a huge change in the workforce, and I expect that there will be more women who will follow me, certainly in Okaloosa County, to the county commission.”
Since the days of Fannie Salmons Bogart as the lone woman county commissioner in the state, many more have been elected to serve. According to the Florida Association of Counties, 2024 started with 89 female commissioners, representing 23% of all seats across the state’s 67 counties. Eight counties have a female majority.
However, there are still 29 counties with just one woman, and 17 that have none.
Locally, there are no women on the board in Santa Rosa and just three female commissioners, making up 15% of the 20 possible seats across the four counties of Northwest Florida.
In addition to Ketchel in Okaloosa, Donna Johns is the only woman on the Walton County Commission, and Ashley Hofberger was recently appointed to fill the District 4 seat on the Escambia County board.
“I still think the scenery is lopsided,” said Wagner, with a chuckle. “I wish more women would run for public office, especially local offices, but at all levels.”
Historically, Escambia has recorded a total five female commissioners. Santa Rosa has had three. There’ve been seven in Okaloosa. Five had served on the board in Walton, including Cindy Meadows, the first to be elected as recently as 2004.
That’s a total of 20 across the region in the last 100 years.
