Current:Home > Scams'Change doesn’t happen with the same voices': All-female St. Paul city council makes history-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
'Change doesn’t happen with the same voices': All-female St. Paul city council makes history
View Date:2024-12-23 16:52:20
The city council in St. Paul, Minnesota is now made up entirely of women, a first not only in the city's history but also likely among major cities in the U.S.
The council, comprised mostly of women of color and all under 40 years old, was sworn in Tuesday and began the city's business at its first meeting on Wednesday, including approving mayoral appointments and appeals of abatement ordinances
"We’re a multifaith, multicultural group of women. Our professional experiences are what people trusted as much as our personal ones," St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali told the Associated Press. "We have a clear policy vision that we got elected on.”
Experts who spoke to the Associated Press said that the council is the first all-female council of a major American city.
"To have a 100% female city council in a major city in the United States is really significant," Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University told the AP. "If it’s not the first one, it’s one of the first where this has happened – so it’s a big deal."
Minnesota lieutenant governor says this should be 'the way it is'
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said that while the all-female council has made history, "it should also simply be the way it is,” according to The New York Times.
Flanagan spoke to a packed auditorium as the council members were sworn in, telling them that young people “are going to dream big and achieve their dreams because of the risk you were willing to take," the newspaper reported.
Six of the seven women on the council are women of color and all are Democrats.
"This is the vision I had when I first started organizing eight years ago," Nelsie Yang, the representative for Ward 6 who was first elected to the council in 2020, told the Times. "Change doesn’t happen with the same voices at the table."
Yang, 28, is also the first Hmong-American to serve on the council.
Jalali noted at the swearing-in ceremony that the historic first was not without blowback.
"A lot of people who were comfortable with majority male, majority white institutions in nearly 170 years of city history are suddenly sharply concerned about representation," she said. "My thoughts and prayers are with them in this challenging time."
Stats show women underrepresented in municipal politics
According to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, nearly 70% of municipal offices in the United States are held by men.
In Minnesota, 35% percent of municipal officials in the state are men, placing the state in a tie with Michigan for the 16th highest state in the country for male representatives.
Arizona and Alaska are tied for the states with the most women holding municipal offices at 45%. North Dakota ranks 50th with 20% of the state's municipal offices held by women.
veryGood! (38449)
Related
- Pitchfork Music Festival to find new home after ending 19-year run in Chicago
- Climate Costs Rise as Amazon, Retailers Compete on Fast Delivery
- Summer House Preview: Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover Have Their Most Confusing Fight Yet
- Despite Electoral Outcomes, Poll Shows Voters Want Clean Economy
- As US Catholic bishops meet, Trump looms over their work on abortion and immigration
- Here's How North West and Kim Kardashian Supported Tristan Thompson at a Lakers Game
- Today’s Climate: August 26, 2010
- CRISPR gene-editing may boost cancer immunotherapy, new study finds
- Democrat Cleo Fields wins re-drawn Louisiana congressional district, flipping red seat blue
- Dangers Without Borders: Military Readiness in a Warming World
Ranking
- Vermont man is fit to stand trial over shooting of 3 Palestinian college students
- Rihanna and A$AP Rocky's Baby Boy's Name Revealed
- Climate Change Treated as Afterthought in Second Presidential Debate
- Psychedelic drugs may launch a new era in psychiatric treatment, brain scientists say
- Shocked South Carolina woman walks into bathroom only to find python behind toilet
- Bloomberg Is a Climate Leader. So Why Aren’t Activists Excited About a Run for President?
- Henrietta Lacks' hometown will build statue of her to replace Robert E. Lee monument
- U.S. Solar Industry Fights to Save Controversial Clean Energy Grants
Recommendation
-
When do new episodes of 'Cobra Kai' Season 6 come out? Release date, cast, where to watch
-
LeBron James' Wife Savannah Explains Why She's Stayed Away From the Spotlight in Rare Interview
-
Today’s Climate: September 2, 2010
-
Thousands of Jobs Riding on Extension of Clean Energy Cash Grant Program
-
Jana Kramer’s Ex Mike Caussin Shares Resentment Over Her Child Support Payments
-
I usually wake up just ahead of my alarm. What's up with that?
-
In Pennsylvania, One Senate Seat With Big Climate Implications
-
U.S. Navy Tests Boat Powered by Algae