PA House Speaker Joanna McClinton celebrates milestone
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- As we celebrate Women's History Month, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton is celebrating a major milestone, becoming the first female speaker in Pennsylvania history.
CBS News Philadelphia met with McClinton to talk about her climb to the top of the state house and her message to young girls.
"I'm just excited, I'm grateful at times it still feels surreal," McClinton said.
Pennsylvania state representative Joanna McClinton is making history and shattering barriers in Harrisburg. She is now Pennsylvania's first female speaker of the house after serving seven years representing west, southwest, and Delaware County in the state legislature.
"It's very humbling for my colleagues, a lot of glass and cement and everything on that floor," McClinton said.
We sat down with the southwest Philly native who graduated from LaSalle University and Villanova Law School. She worked as a public defender before venturing into politics winning her first house seat in 2015. Speaker McClinton is fiercely passionate about issues that affect Pennsylvanians, especially championing criminal justice reform and women's rights.
"Being the first at something brings a lot of responsibility," McClinton said. "And you recognize that you represent and you stand in where folks have not seen themselves represented. So certainly, women's equality, women's rights, equal pay."
Representative McClinton has become known as a relationship builder reaching across the aisle to bridge partisan gaps.
"What I do want to do is work across the aisle," McClinton said. "I really want to restore the decorum for our institution."
She has seen the face of the state legislature change just in the last seven years she's walked the halls of the capital.
"When I started in the Pennsylvania house there were only nine women of color for the first few years," McClinton said. "We are up to 14. The task that had previously been left to retiring men to find their mentees, many of them were men, we are seeing women pass the baton to other women."
State representative McClinton has become a role model to other women wearing her authenticity and passion for politics proudly. She has this to say to others who may want to follow in her footsteps.
"When my legacy comes about for three seconds that, people remember it," McClinton said. "That it be, go after it no matter how hard it is and how impossible it seems."