Celebrating Women: Except for LA’s Electeds, Women have Edge at City Hall

MY TURN-In honor of “Women’s History Month” I decided to take a look and see how LA has progressed in advancing women in City government.  Before the majority of our male CityWatch readers groan … we couldn’t just allocate a month to “Men’s History” since it would be more like Centuries!  A month is manageable. 

Statistics was not my favorite subject in College, but LA City Controller, Ron Galperin has managed to pique my interest on his C ontrol Panel on more than a few occasions 

Last year he developed this graphic (left), which shows the comparison in pay, jobs, etc.  They didn’t update it this year because the City has done very little hiring. 

If you go beyond the interesting graphic to the detail you will find that almost in all categories men’s average salary is higher than women’s.  Interestingly the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (Neighborhood Councils) almost has parity between the two.  The Airports on the other hand have a huge discrepancy with women at the lower end and the City Attorney’s average female/male ratio  is almost one third less for the women.  Check out all the details here. 

LA has a checkered history in elevating women to positions of influence.  The first woman, Estelle Lawton Lindsey, was elected to the LA City Council  and served for two years from 1915-1917.  The City of Angels did not elect another woman to the City Council until Rosalind Weiner Wyman who was the youngest person ever elected to the Council in 1953 at the age of 22.  She was recently appointed to the LA County Art Commission.  The first woman to serve as City Council President was Pat Russell 1983 to 1987. 

I’m using the historical facts to show that as one of the supposedly most progressive Cities in the country … there seems to be large gaps in either appointing or electing women to City positions.  In November 1990 the City Council adopted a unanimous motion that half of Mayor Tom Bradley’s appointees to Committees and Commissions be women. 

Our current Mayor Eric Garcetti has appointed women to top leadership positions in the Mayor's Office, including: Chief of Staff Ana Guerrero, Deputy Mayor of Economic Development Kelli Bernard, Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security and Public Safety Eileen Decker, Deputy Mayor of City Services Barbara Romero (three of the four Deputy Mayors are currently women). 

The Mayor has also appointed 12 new General Managers, and half are women:  Marcie Edwards, Department of Water & Power; Seleta Reynolds, Department of Transportation; Danielle Brazell,  Department of Cultural Affairs; Holly Wolcott, City Clerk; Jan Perry, Economic and Workforce Development Department; Wendy Macy, Personnel.  

The other female General Managers are: Brenda Barnette, Animal Services; Antoinette Christovale ,Finance; Gina Marie Lindsey,Los Angeles World Airports; Grayce Liu, Neighborhood Empowerment; and Laura Trejo at Aging. 

And for the first time in the City's history, more than half of all city commissioners (54%) are women.

The City of Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established through an ordinance passed by Mayor Tom Bradley and the Los City Council in 1975.  The CSW’s mandate is to advance the general welfare of women and girls in the Los Angeles community and to ensure that all women have full and equal participation in City government. 

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week."  Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as "Women’s History Month." (Photo right: Mayor kicks off Women’s History Month celebration in his Media Room.)  

In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month."  Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. 

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Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” 

In spite of that… we still have never elected a woman as Mayor.  We have one woman elected to the City Council, Nury Martinez.  Some say that women have reached parity with men.  Since racial discrimination has disappeared (according to the Supreme Court—- current history not withstanding) why should we concentrate on promoting gender as opposed to the most qualified person? 

There have been volumes written about the difference in management styles between men and women.  You have heard them and I don’t have to repeat them here.  I used to think (as a young idealistic activist) that if boys and girls were brought up the same and not forced into specific boy/girl roles the differences would not be discernible . 

Then I had children!  

The genetic differences between the three girls and one boy were apparent from a very early age.  Men and women are different not just in the obvious areas but in the way they tackle challenges; interact with other people; have different priorities and views of the world. 

In light of this I have reached out to some of the “high powered women” in the City to see what they are doing that is different from their male predecessors. 

Stay tuned!  

As always comments welcome.

 

(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist.  She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 24

Pub: Mar 20, 2015