"Margaret Chase Smith is a badass woman because she forged the way for future female leaders come in and break up the man’s world of politics.” 

    

Harley Rogers is a fourth-year student at the University of Maine and will graduatie this springswith a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, with minors in History and Leadership Studies, with Honors. Her interest in politics started in high school when she decided she would one day run for public office. Soon after she started college she became a member of the Margaret Chase Smith Recipe Research Collaborative, an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty aimed at researching the connections between food, identities, and politics. Her research doubles as the work for her Honors thesis titled, "Female Political Candidates: Just the Right Amount of Femininity.” Using Margaret Chase Smith as a case study Harley’s work seeks to better understand the ways female candidates craft their public identities to fit societal and gender expectations of them while pursuing their political aspirations. After graduation, Rogers plans to further her education through a master of Library and Information Science degree. She hopes to work as a librarian and plans to run for state office within the next few years."