Marigene Valiquette

Marigene Gertrude Valiquette (August 22, 1924 – August 6, 2024) was an American politician who was a 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.

During her third year of law school at the University of Toledo, Valiquette became a law clerk for Judge Geraldine Macelwane in 1959 after an unsuccessful run for city council.

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.

Valiquette played a pivotal role in securing Ohio's ratification of the ERA, championing it through the state legislature.

In the early 1970s, as a state senator, Valiquette advocated strongly for Ohio's passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that aimed to guarantee equal rights for women.

In 1972, Valiquette worked in the Ohio senate to champion the amendment but expressed frustration with "enthusiasm lacking" from her colleagues.

In 1973, Valiquette was very politically active working for the ratification of the ERA. In January, she spoke at an ERA workshop which was co-hosted by the Cincinnati Council on the State of Women as well as the Coalition of Campus Women. The workshop was held on the University of Cincinnati campus. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Valiquette said at the workshop, "I know what it's like to be a single working woman. But I was made equal and I was born equal, and all I want is my right in law."

Also that year, Valiquette was quoted in the press advocating for the passage of the amendment saying, "It is an attack against the last bastion of discrimination not covered in our Bill of Rights."