Marigene Gertrude Valiquette (born 1924) is a former member of the Ohio General Assembly.Ohio Women's Hall of Fame Bio: Marigene Valiquette
" Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. www.odjfs.state.oh.us. Retrieved 2016-07-03. She served 24 consecutive years in the state legislature, first as a member of the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in Ch ...

, beginning in 1963, and subsequently as a member of the Ohio State Senate, from 1969 until 1986.Ladies' Gallery – Legislators: Marigene Valiquette
" Ohio Statehouse. www.ohiostatehouse.org. Retrieved 2016-07-03.

Career

During her third year of law school at the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of ...

, Valiquette became a law clerk for Judge Geraldine Macelwane in 1959 after an unsuccessful run for city council. For most of her 18 years as a state senator, Valiquette was the only female senator in office. She became chair of the Judiciary Committee in 1971; later she chaired the Ethics Committee. During a period in the 1980s when the Democratic Party was in the majority, she was a

ranking member In United States politics, a ranking member is the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party. On many committees the ranking minority member, along with the Chair, serve as '' ex officio'' member ...

on both the Finance and the Rules Committee. In the early 1970s, as a state senator, Valiquette advocated strongly for Ohio's passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA),Equal Rights Amendment Gains Ohio Ratification: Senate Votes 20-12 For Measure, Making State 33rd to Approve
(February 7, 1974). ''The Blade'' (Toledo, OH). p. 1. "Senator Valiquette, who shepherded the ERA issue through the long series of hearings of both houses of the General Assembly, was elated that the long campaign finally was over." Retrieved via Google News 2016-07-03. the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that aimed to guarantee equal rights for women; in February 1974 Ohio became the 33rd state to ratify the ERA. In 1985 and 1986, Valiquette was absent from the Ohio Senate for a number of months which ended her career. The absences were attributed to family deaths and financial issues. In 1978, she was inducted into the

Ohio Women's Hall of Fame The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame was a program the State of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services ran from 1978 through 2011. The Hall has over 400 members. In 2019, the Hall's physical archives and online records were transferred to the ...

References

Democratic Party Ohio state senators Politicians from Toledo, Ohio Democratic Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives Women state legislators in Ohio Living people 1924 births 21st-century American women {{Ohio-OHSenate-stub