Mar. 26—Local women who've shattered long-standing glass ceilings in Northeast Pennsylvania often overcame myriad obstacles to achieve the successes they hope inspire others.

Laureen Cummings — a mother to twins born days before she turned 16 who escaped an abusive teenage marriage, became a nurse and later launched a business — made history in 2015 by winning election as the first female commissioner in Lackawanna County's then-137-year history.

Four years later, in 2019, city voters swept Oregon native and Scranton transplant Paige Gebhardt Cognetti into the mayor's office, making her Scranton's first female mayor. The same cycle saw the elections of city Councilwoman Jessica Rothchild, the city's first openly gay council member, and Scranton School Director Sarah Cruz, the school board's first Hispanic member and likely the first minority elected in the city.

They're among local women in a wide range of fields who conquered challenges and the status quo to carve out prominent spaces in traditionally male-dominated arenas. Their paths were different and, often, so were the hurdles they cleared.

Cummings credited an enduring Christian faith imparted by her foster parents with helping her overcome the trauma of her teenage years, and the support of family, friends and mentors with sustaining her in the decades that followed. That was a common theme among local glass-ceiling breakers, many of whom pointed to the support and encouragement of other women in helping propel their ascent.

Overcoming

The former Tea Party activist, Republican commissioner and conservative firebrand had other women in mind, particularly young mothers, when she agreed to discuss a first marriage marred, in her words, by intimidation, threats and fear.

"If there are women out there that are young parents, I don't want them to ever have to go through this," Cummings said of the relationship that began when she was 15.

She was that age when she became pregnant with twins by the man she'd marry and later flee. He wouldn't let her see family, drive or go to school and, in one instance, held one of the children at gunpoint, she said.

"I was deathly afraid of him, because he told me if I ever left him or told them what was going on that he would blow up my house and kill my family," Cummings said. "But I was 15 and I was scared to death. I didn't know what to do. So, until after the babies were born, nobody knew just how violent he was."

Her foster family tried to help on numerous occasions, she said, but Cummings wasn't able to extricate herself from the situation until she disclosed the abuse to a priest who set in motion circumstances allowing her and the children to get away. At 17, she returned to school, went on to become a nurse and, ultimately, launched a nurse staffing business.

Politics came later.

"I didn't have a perfect life," she said. "I mean, obviously, I had a very turmoil-filled life but I was always able to get through it through my faith. And God always put people into my life that I seemed to need at that moment in time."

One of those people was Evelyn Hannon, a local home health business owner who hired Cummings, then a mother of four, in the 1990s.

"She looked out for women that had children," Cummings said. "I was able to get hours with her company that suited my ability to work, because I had four children as a single mom."

Other women, too, described the challenge of balancing motherhood and professional life.

It was raising a baby daughter as a single mother that made staying in the U.S. Navy untenable for Amber Viola, who left the service after eight years but never lost her love and respect for fellow veterans.

Now the first Black female commander of American Legion Post 274 in Gouldsboro, where she's striving to give back to a close-knit community that's always welcomed her, Viola described a lack of support in the Navy for active-duty mothers.

"A lot of the women that I respected and looked up to who made higher ranks, their mother lived with them or moved with them ... and kept their kids when they would deploy," she said. "You need somebody to do that."

Rothchild became a mother in March 2021, after assuming her city council seat in 2020. She and her wife welcomed their daughter, Dylan, into the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, while council was conducting virtual meetings.

That allowed Rothchild, who only missed one meeting after giving birth, to breastfeed during the virtual sessions.

"If they weren't virtual while she was a newborn, I'm honestly not sure how I would have been able to do it," Rothchild said in a text message. "That's not to complain or to paint myself (as) a martyr. It's just to provide some insight into personal challenges I faced as a woman in elected office."

Outside the political realm, Katie Beekman, the first woman to serve as general manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders baseball club, credited former team President Kristen Rose with helping show her that having a family and a career in the game aren't mutually exclusive.

Rose hired Beekman, who became GM in 2019, in 2010.

"Our conversation kind of inspired me to believe that I could actually work in baseball," Beekman said of Rose. "My husband and I had planned to have a family, and my first concern was can I work 75 home games and still be a mom?"

"She was a mom, and she was very encouraging, saying 'yes, we can make this work,' " Beekman continued.

Being first

After Rothchild's historic election, members of the LGBTQ community who'd left Scranton reached out to say, if she had been in office before, they may have stayed. It touched the councilwoman-elect and LGBTQ advocate, who herself decided to stay in the city after earning both undergraduate and Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees from the University of Scranton.

But Rothchild's council campaign was about much more than her sexual orientation, and people rarely batted an eye when she made mention of it while knocking on doors and meeting constituents. They seemed more interested that she was young, represented a fresh voice and had chosen Scranton as her home, she said.

"I certainly wasn't running on being an out lesbian or wanting to be the first out person, that wasn't my goal," Rothchild said. "I certainly did include pieces of that in my campaign, but part of that is because of LGBTQ activism that I was involved with for many years and how close to my heart that is."

Still, shattering that glass ceiling was important to the councilwoman, who said it shows "other LGBTQ people or other women that, if I did it, you can do it too."

Rothchild also welcomes the opportunity to talk with other potential candidates considering political runs, including those from traditionally underrepresented groups who'd bring more diverse perspectives.

"I want more of us in public office," she said. "It really does not need to be just me."

In the county's case, Cummings' GOP victory in the 2015 commissioners race — a win that surprised even her — proved a precursor to another woman's achievement four years later, when attorney Debi Domenick won election as Lackawanna's first Democratic female commissioner.

For Sarah Cruz, it was a chance meeting with Cognetti, then a Scranton school director, on July 1, 2018, that lead to her eventual run for elected office. The now-mayor was shopping at Boscov's, where Cruz works, when the latter approached the former and began a trajectory changing conversation.

"And at the end of it she said: 'Well Sarah Cruz ... next spring there will be five open seats on the school board and I'd like to see you run,'" Cruz recalled.

She was apprehensive, as was her mother, a native of Honduras turned American citizen reticent to see her youngest daughter step into the turbulent world of Scranton politics. It wasn't something Cruz had ever considered for herself and, frankly, it felt impossible given her socioeconomic status, ethnicity, the fact she wasn't originally from Scranton and other factors, she said.

But, when the death of Director Carol Oleski created a board vacancy in October 2018, Cognetti encouraged Cruz to apply for the appointment. Cruz was disappointed when she wasn't chosen, "but not heartbroken," and ran the next year in a historic May primary where most Scranton school board incumbents failed to win spots on the November ballot.

Cruz and three other female newcomers, Catherine Fox, Tara Yanni and Ro Hume, officially won board seats in November 2019, unopposed on the general election ballot.

Reflecting back, Cruz specifically noted the friendship and influence of Cognetti, Rothchild and fellow Scranton School Director Katie Gilmartin with helping her get to were she is, calling the three women "the pillars of my public life."

She also reflected on what it means to be the first person of color elected to the board of the most diverse school district in Lackawanna County.

"It just shows the power of having people in your life ... who believe in you, who encourage you and who give you the vision to see yourself how they see you," Cruz said. "I make sure to live my life everyday, not just as a private citizen but as a public servant, making sure that I am that example for other young women."

Giving back

Many people in Viola's life who believe in and encourage her can often be found at American Legion Post 274 in Gouldsboro.

"These people are my family and my support system, and when I would come back and forth on leave this is where I'd come home to," she said. "It's always been such a place of love and support even though I am definitely the minority there."

When they approached her over a year ago to put her name in for commander, Viola's first though was that someone older and arguably more qualified should take the role. But, in a major vote of confidence, members elected her unanimously, making her the first Black woman to lead the post.

Work to attract new, younger members and address the challenges facing many veterans organizations are ongoing, but Viola remains committed to supporting the people who always supported her.

"When I first came back home, I was going through a divorce, I was getting out (of) the Navy, I was a new single parent, I was going to school ... and my legion supported me so, so, so much, and really helped me through that whole transition," she said. "And I felt like I was kind of coming home limping a little bit, but they didn't see that. They just saw their Navy veteran sailor coming home, and they were proud."

Pushing forward

Like Cruz, Cognetti said she wants to be a role model.

She recalled an incident at a mayor's conference where an older male mayor asked her who she worked for, not assuming she was a mayor herself. It's an example of the work that remains to make it "just absolutely normal for a woman to be in a position of leadership," Cognetti said.

She also recalled her inauguration as mayor in January 2020, noting 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the U.S.

"I got to kind of relive that feeling of representing in my own small way being a woman pushing forward," Cognetti said.

When the opportunity arises to speak with girls and young women the mayor said she often chats with them about their potential futures.

"That's how I feel it's my duty to pay forward what I feel other women did for me, which was ... support me in moving forward with my career," she said. "And I want to do that for women and girls now."

Asked what advice she'd give young girls considering a career in sports, Beekman, the RailRiders' GM, said nothing comes easy.

"It's very easy to sit there in this room with a bunch of older gentlemen who obviously have a lot of experience doing what they do and ... start to question yourself," she said. "You start to question why you have the right to sit at the same table as they do. And then, as you listen to the conversation, you're just like 'oh, well I know all about that' or "I can add an opinion into that.'"

"I think that it's just a confidence thing," she continued. "It's getting out of your own head and it's reminding yourself that you're there because you earned the right to be there."

Contact the writer: jhorvath@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9141; @jhorvathTT on Twitter.