COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina joins the nation in remembering the life of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Local women in politics spoke about her impact and what other women can be reminded of in Feinstein's legacy.
When she died, Senator Feinstein was 90 years old and served three decades in the U.S. Senate.
State Representative for District 78, Beth Bernstein, called Feinstein a trailblazer for women like herself in politics. She hopes while women in South Carolina remember the Senator, they are also encouraged.
"I looked at the statistics, there's 25% of the members of the U.S. Senate are female, which is I should say, a higher percentage than what we have here in our state general assembly and our state senate," Bernstein explained. "That's a little optimistic, but I think what Senator Feinstein shows is that women bring a different set of skills to the table, and in order for us to have our voice at the table, we have to be at the table."
Barbara Rackes is the CEO of S.C. Women in Leadership. She says her organization encourages women to set their place at the table, so to speak, and take on roles in leadership and politics.
Rackes says statistically that South Carolina needs more representation from women.
"In South Carolina, if you want to reference numbers, women represent only 14.7% of our legislature, so decision-making bodies at the state level in South Carolina are very heavy with men, but it doesn't give us a voice at the table, so whatever your beliefs are it is sorely missing, not just numerically but as you see decisions are made, you see they are not speaking with the perspective of women, and all decisions are better made if multiple perspectives are included," Rackes said.
Flags will be flown at half-staff for Feinstein until the evening of her burial.