The town of Breckenridge elected its first woman mayor in 2024. A momentous occasion, but for Kelly Owens, it was less about her gender and more about her values and what she holds dear about the small town of around 5,000 people that’s also the county seat of Summit County.
“But I do understand that it's meaningful,” she said.
“I certainly love to have our school groups come, and when you see first, second grade, third grade girls just light up at the thought that they could be mayor one day. It really strikes home that it is an important position to show people that we are moving on from those times where everybody needed to look the same to be a leader.”
And she’s not alone.
Women currently make up two of the three county commissioner seats. Both Ann-Marie Sandquist of Silverthorne and Carolyn Skowyra of Dillon are wrapping up two terms as their towns’ mayors. Plus, women hold the majority of those two towns’ council seats.
The history of female leadership and civic engagement runs deep in Colorado. The state was at the forefront of women’s suffrage, the movement that gave women the right to vote. In 1893, voters across the state enfranchised women, which also allowed them to hold public office. It was the 2nd state to do so, behind Wyoming, and nearly 30 years before the entire country did so with the 19th Amendment.
Those roots are felt deeply in some mountain towns, where women continue to step up to lead their communities. But that’s not exactly a new thing in these places.
In Frisco, you can learn about the roles women played long ago at the town’s Historic Park and Museum. A collection of original historic buildings, the museum has stories and artifacts of mountain living, including the political activism in 1916 that helped save the town.
According to records, the men of Frisco had abandoned governing their town for a number of years. After failing to pay the Frisco Power and Light Company, the town was plunged into literal darkness.
So seven women stood up for an election, held a vote and reformed Frisco’s government.
“It's really important to note that these women took over the town board three years before women had suffrage nationally,” said Laura Hoeppner, who co-produced a 2016 documentary called “Strong Sisters: Elected Women in Colorado.”
“These women are a great example of taking responsibility for your community and what's going on and how important it is just to be part of the community to connect because you don't know what crisis you're going to face.”
That’s the ideal Breckenridge Mayor Owens embodies today, along with other women active in the town’s local government.
“I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of amazing women,” she said, pointing to roles like the town manager, the town attorney, the town engineer, the HR director, and the police chief.
“So we have a lot of great, qualified people in Breckenridge who happen to be women.”
That includes Town Manager Shannon Haynes, who also served as chief of police in Breckenridge for four years after working her way up from a sergeant position.
“I was in law enforcement in the first half of my career, which is primarily male-dominated. Now, just to see over time how it changed, the profession has changed and how more women are becoming involved and rising into leadership positions, and to be a part of that is really special,” she said.
Haynes added that it’s important to act as role models and mentors in their community, too.
“Whether someone's male or female, if they have potential and desire and they're good for our community or organization, we want them involved,” she said.
“But it is also a little bit special to have those quality females that are in the pipeline too, and to help see them succeed.”
