St. Paul, Minnesota, has an all-woman city council for the first time in its history — and experts say it may be the largest U.S. city to ever have an all-woman council.
St. Paul, Minnesota, has an all-woman city council for the first time in its history — and experts say it may be the largest U.S. city to ever have an all-woman council.
The solution isn’t more of the first or third.
There’s no way this council can reflect its community just like an all male council doesn’t.
I get the point you’re making in you first comment but this part in this comment really ignores that a community has lots of factors. Like all of the people on this council are under age 40 and the median age of the city is 32.5. The group represents five different faiths and is comprised of four different ethnicities.
Yes one of the dimensions of the community heptahedron shaped spectrum came up short. BUT this single edge of the polyhedra that comprises political science, a sole determining factor does not make.
I get your original point, one face of this is skewed off from normalization. And perhaps when folks say “all male blah blah blah are bad” they’re generalizing too much because a lot of the problem is old, white, male, non-progressive, traditionalist, etc etc etc that gets summed up into the term of “all male…”.
That over generalization is kind of why on your first comment, it’s kind of a head nod and move on. But this second comment you’re really hurting your first point there. That council might or might not properly reflect their community in enough facets of the political polyhedron, simply looking at one edge of it (sex) is, technically, not enough information to really draw a conclusion on that front.
Which is why, if you leave with anything from my comment, we should be cautious about running with the headline of a news story. Because the city council themself found it interesting that the public elected an all women group but were absolutely quick to point out more their alignment with their age to the population of the city. It’s the news story and Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University hyping the angle of their sex.
Also, at least that’s my conclusion from the linked story. For all I know, the City Council’s first order of business at their first closed door meeting might be to burn men in effigy, or it could be to restore the puppy no-kill shelter. All I know is life moves fast and that there’s a lot more to a community than just the sex of the leaders of it.
The second is indeed best. But as long as the first or third is much larger than the other, having more of the lesser is the second best option and also the rarest.
I guess, kinda?
Nation wide sure, but on the city level, it’s entirely all of one.
Like you’ve got a point, that evening out the two extremes is better than one dominating but I’m not going to be celebrating it as good news per se.
Do you also complain abiut equality when you see all men councils, or only when it is all women?
Of course. Don’t you?