The last time the mayor of Seattle was a woman was in 1926. When Bertha Knight Landes ran, local papers assured voters that she was “plain” and “unassuming,” that she went to church, that she was not a “chattering woman” or perhaps worse, that she was not a “new woman” either. When she won, Landes made history, and not only in the city: As the first woman mayor of Seattle, she also became the first woman to be elected mayor of any major U.S. city.
On Tuesday, almost 100 years since Landes took office, more women were on track to become mayors in the top 100 U.S. cities than ever before, many in historic wins. Seattle elected a woman for the first time since Landes. Five other U.S. cities of all sizes elected or are expected to elect women for the first time in their history. In all, when the remaining elections have been completed, there will have been at least a 25 percent jump in female mayors in the top 100 cities since last year. Since 2011, this jump is 177 percent. These mayoral candidates’ political ascent shouldn’t be conflated with their gender, but their particular paths do reveal something about the future of women’s representation in local office—where ceilings are shattering, where barriers remain, and why.
“It’s notable as a part of the larger trend of women candidates defying expectations and making history while doing so,” says Jean Sinzdak, Associate Director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “While the overall media narrative is focused on the fact that Democrats as a party did exceedingly well last night, the thread in that narrative that jumps out at me is that women and people of color drove that success.”
[For more on this story by SARAH HOLDER ALASTAIR BOONE, go to https://www.citylab.com/life/2...make-history/545000/]
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