Marigene Valiquette
Marigene Gertrude Valiquette is a former member of the Ohio General Assembly. She served 24 consecutive years in the state legislature, first as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, beginning in 1963, and subsequently as a member of the Ohio State Senate, from 1969 until 1986.
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 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, 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.
