Cathy Cox says of registered voters in Georgia, almost 55% are women. In last November's election, women made up 56% of Georgians voting.

Excerpts from:

Cathy Cox: 'We've come a long way'Secretary of State notes strides, pushes for more progress for equality

By Larry Gierer
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
March 27, 2005

It seems like an awfully good time for someone to run for election as the first woman governor of Georgia.

Cathy Cox certainly thinks so.

Cox, the state's first woman Secretary of State, now in her second term, won re-election with 61 percent of the vote.

Cox told [an audience], "Fewer than 100 years ago, women didn't have the right to vote in Georgia, now the state legislature is 20 percent women."

Noting that a woman is now the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court as well as the state's secretary of education, she told those gathered that "women must continue to break down barriers and keep pushing against that glass ceiling so that years from now only in history books will we read about inequality for women."

A native of Bainbridge, Ga., Cox said her "heart is in rural Georgia" and that the next decade needs to be boom years for business in places around the state "other than Atlanta."

Cox said wherever she goes, she encourages more women to follow in her footsteps and get involved in politics and run for office. "The excuse I hear most," she said, "is that politics is too mean.