Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Female lawmakers start video project
State Rep. DeAnn Vaught, a Republican from Horatio, wants young women to know she was not the best student.
But in addition to the Cs and Ds she earned in high school as a result of a learning disability, Vaught carried another burden that she disclosed in a recent online message, marked with the hashtag, ARGIRLSLEAD.
An eating disorder in her adult life led to counseling that enabled her to confront a history of sexual abuse she was subjected to in her adolescence. All were part of her journey to elected
office, Vaught says. Now in her second term as a representative, she is chairman of the House Management Committee.
Hoping to cultivate the initiative of young women across the state, the 18 women of the Arkansas House of Representatives started a project Wednesday through which they will produce and upload videos sharing their own life stories.
“They think we have our junk together, when in reality we’ve had to go through trials to get where we are today,” Vaught told a reporter at a kickoff event in the state Capitol rotunda.
Rep. Frances Cavenaugh, a Republican from Walnut Ridge serving her first term, chimed in, “We still have our trials!”
The project is the creation of Rep. Sarah Capp, R-Ozark, who said she got the idea about two months ago while visiting with young women at schools in her northwest Arkansas district.
Capp said the women with whom she spoke felt empowered having a female representative. When she approached colleagues, she said they agreed to attempt to re-create those conversations on a wider scale.
“There are many statistics in Arkansas we are not proud of, especially when it comes to women,” Capp told the audience Wednesday.
According to statistics provided by the group of lawmakers, while women make up more than half of the state’s labor force and students at four-year colleges, Arkansas ranked last in the nation in the number of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Capp also pointed out that Arkansas has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation.