| Ruth Easterling begins the conclusion of Biographical Conversations with a recollection of her experience in 1994, when the Republicans won the majority in the House. As she states, she went from seat 5 to seat 106 —not too dissimilar to her placement during her first term, when she was in seat 104 because there were so many Democrats. She says that even though she disagreed with the Republican platform, she had many good friends who were Republicans.
All through the 1990s, she worked to increase salaries for teachers. In some of the smaller schools, there was no separate class for children with special needs, so they were included in the classes with the other children. Teachers were doubling as nurses to provide medications and counselors to help these children with their needs, and they were doing these extra duties on the same salary that they had accepted for teaching. Ruth felt that they should be compensated for their roles outside of their normal duties.
In 1995, she attended the United Nations Conference for Women in China. She joined 42 other women from North Carolina at the conference, looking at the status of women in all countries.
In 1999 she regained her front row seat in the House after Democrats regained control and Jim Black was elected Speaker of the House. In addition, Speaker Black appointed her as co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, only the second women to be in that position. Although she is proud of her accomplishments to improve opportunities for women, she feels that more needs to be done.
She shares her recollections of the House speakers who served while she was there. She begins by telling of the split in the House over two speakers who were running, and the one that she did not support was chosen. To her surprise, he appointed her as chair of the Appropriations subcommittee.
In 2002, Ruth Easterling stepped down from the General Assembly, a decision she says was not that difficult, because women were gaining momentum in the General Assembly. She feels that her best accomplishments were improving the divorce laws, conditions in daycare centers and in education. She still advocates for having a nurse in each school and is proud of North Carolina’s community college system.
She is proud of what she accomplished and for taking the opportunities with which she was presented. She feels that she paved the way for more improvements to be made in the areas of women’s issues, divorce laws and education but says that those improvements will come in the future.
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