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Women mayors explored the challenges of pursuing and serving in the highest elected office in their cities.
Seven of the state’s 11 women mayors took part in a forum on March 11 that explored the challenges of pursuing and serving in the highest elected office in their cities.
The 11 women mayors – the highest number ever – account for one-fourth of the state’s total. The percentage of female members of city councils, boards of aldermen and boards of selectmen, meanwhile, has remained at or slightly below 20 percent over the past decade, according to the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which sponsored the forum in Boston.
Several of the mayors suggested that assumptions about gender continue to influence local politics. Kim Driscoll, who was elected as Salem’s mayor with 63 percent of the vote in 2005, said the “W-factor” is something that remains difficult to overcome.
“There were very well-meaning, good-intentioned people who bought into” the assumption that a male candidate would be better suited to serve as mayor, Driscoll said.
Driscoll added, however, that her tenure as mayor should put an end to old ways of thinking.
“I really believe that for the next person who runs, [gender] will be a non-factor,” she said.
Mayors Denise Simmons of Cambridge and Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester got their start in local politics as school committee members. Simmons said some people discouraged her when she decided to run for city council, suggesting that she “wanted to do ‘a man’s job.’” Among her fellow African-Americans, Simmons said, there was concern that she would dilute support for the one person of color already serving on the council.
Kirk described her four years on the School Committee as instructive. She said that she encountered bullying from some male members of the committee, but chose to sit back and absorb it, because she grasped that the hectoring would make her opponents look bad.
“You learn how to use your gender to your advantage,” Kirk said, adding that any such tactic must be employed subtly.
“The other thing I did [on the School Committee] was learn procedure,” Kirk said. “You really have to be scientific about the levers at your disposal to get the job done.”
Nancy Stevens of Marlborough described how her opponent in the 2005 election sought to disparage the 10 years she spent as a stay-at-home mother.
Clare Higgins, a former daycare operator who has served as Northampton’s mayor since 2000, suggested that women candidates often have relevant experience that might not be recognized as such.
“Those skills I learned in a daycare center I jokingly like to say is the best training for being a mayor, but it actually is true,” Higgins said.
In her former profession, she said, she developed mediation skills and came to appreciate the importance of nimble thinking.
Also taking part in the panel discussion were Sue Kay, the former Braintree executive secretary who was elected mayor of Weymouth last November, and Jeannette McCarthy, who in January began her second four-year term as mayor of Waltham.