After blazing trails in politics, Madeline Kunin is ready to pass the torch to future generations of ambitious women.

Kunin, former three-term governor of Vermont and ambassador to Switzerland, spoke to an audience in the Durham Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Thursday as part of what she called a “very nostalgic” Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics lecture.

While she is best known for her work in Vermont and abroad, Kunin began her lecture with a brief history of female Iowans and their viability in politics.

“Iowa is one of few states that hasn’t elected a woman to Congress or as a governor, but it seems to have established a tradition of electing female lieutenant governors,” Kunin said.

When first elected governor of Vermont in 1984, Kunin had hopes that “now the floodgates would open up” for women to obtain leadership positions in higher government.

“I thought there would be a whole parade of women marching behind me – as I looked over my shoulder there were some, but they canceled the parade,” she said. “There was no audience, there was no band playing.”

At that time, Kunin used the experience of being elected to state office to look into the future. During her time as a politician, Kunin was molded by two separate movements: the women’s movement and the environmental movement.

The women’s movement allowed Kunin to network with other like-minded women to encourage one another both professionally and emotionally. But, without the element of good timing, Kunin said the lessons she learned may have been squelched.

“The women’s movement was very powerful in my timing,” she said. “I didn’t just deal with environmental or women’s issues when elected. I had to deal with a whole gamut of issues.”

Kunin also said she was impressed with young people’s enthusiasm for the 2008 presidential election.

“What I see in this election is that this generation has recaptured something that we older folks thought had been lost,” Kunin said. “You are capturing all three of those boxes.”

The “boxes” Kunin referred to were the skills necessary to be successful in politics – anger, imagination and optimism. With the proper balance of all three aspects, Kunin said women and others will see “breakthroughs in places we haven’t before.”

“We live in a privileged time and place and must use that privilege to speak out. And politics does mean speaking out,” she said. “Not only is it dangerous to speak out, but you can lose your life. That is going on right now in parts of the world.”

Kunin also said the U.S. government isn’t what it should be.

“It will take a determined revival of democracy to be the type of government we must become,” she said. “What you really need is the belief that it’s worth the effort and that it’s worth getting something done.”