Research Spotlight: Mirya Holman
Mayoral Leadership & Appointed Power in US Cities
On Wednesday, April 21, 2018 Tulane University Associate Professor of Political Science, Mirya Holman, joined the Initiative on Cities to share research from her recently published book, Women in Politics in the American City, which explores the influence of gender on urban leadership in the United States.
Women in Politics in the American City
In Professor Holman’s book, she argues that firstly, not only does gender representation matter in political decisions in urban America, but it matters in uniquely urban ways. Through research and data analysis, Holman found that in terms of policy outcomes, female mayors are more likely to fund women’s issues programs, while also increasing employment in these areas— but why are women mayors more likely to fund women’s issues program than their male counterparts?
Holman found links to three core explanations: representation, pluralism, and direct democracy. For representation, female leaders value women’s issues and policies more than their male counterparts— they see more of a need to represent those without a voice and those that are underserved, who typically do not have access to government decisions. Pluralism explains how different groups gain access to power under female leaders, which is much more expansive in comparison to groups that gain access to power under male leadership. Although this can create more complex processes in terms of policy and decision-making for the female leader, it contributes to urban women’s issues having greater emphasis on policy. Lastly, direct democracy with community members is seen as much more active under female mayors, which allows for greater focus on community-based issues. These three main factors all contribute to why it is seen throughout the nation, that cities with female mayoral leadership are more likely to fund uniquely urban women’s issues programs, while also increasing employment within these areas.
Quasi Governmental Bodies in City Government
As Holman sifted through hours of city council meetings for her research on municipal female leadership, she noticed a recurring trend happening across the nation— quasi governmental bodies were having a say in important decisions, yet there was little public visibility between these bodies and their relationship with the government. The quasi boards were shown to have a wide range of powers and responsibilities, often hidden from the public eye, made up of appointed individuals whose backgrounds were largely unknown. Holman noticed that sitting on these boards served as a key pipeline to local elected office, yet the public lacked basic information as to what boards existed, who selected membership for the boards, criteria for serving on the board, and what the responsibilities of the board actually were.
Professor Holman began her research by collecting data on these commissions and their members from the top 50 largest cities in the United States. Some city websites like Boston were straightforward with boards, member names, and biographies given. Some were harder, with little information given beyond the name, and some like New York were near impossible, leading Holman to website URLs that no longer existed. Certain cities even publicly stated that the information could not be provided because of court orders, or violations of privacy. In total, she was able to collect information on 44 of the 50 largest cities, totaling 2090 boards with 29,093 individuals sitting on them. Through theory-driven and organic coding, board types were categorized into the following: animal control, children, civil service, code regulation, culture, economic development, elderly, environment, ethics, fire and police, health, infrastructure, judicial, minority issues, taxes, and women’s issues. In terms of how board members were selected, there was a combination of mayor appointments, city council appointments, joint appointments, or appointments from nominated boards that are chosen by the mayor. For positions where it was not specified how the member was appointed, it was generally assumed that the mayor appointed that member.
Representation of Women on Municipal Quasi Governmental Bodies
Given the wide range of activities, influence, and representation of these quasi governmental bodies in cities, Professor Holman decided to explore what influences higher or lower level female representation on particular boards, and if the type of board influenced gender representation in a particular way. Her original thought, was that these kinds of boards can fall under “volunteerism” because there is no fiscal benefit to being on these bodies, which is traditionally more of a women’s issue. However, women have also traditionally been shut out of important policy decision making, which would support the theory that there would be less female representation on the more important and influential boards. After analyzing the data, she found that on average, women represent 40% of board members across the entire data set, but a there was a wide range from city to city— Columbus, OH had the lowest representation of only 23% female, and Oakland, CA had some of the highest representation at 52% female. Cities with female mayors had slightly higher representation of females on boards, and males had slightly lower representation of females. Based on her own categorization strategy, Holman found that women were less represented on high prestige boards (i.e civil services, economic development, fire and police, taxes), and more represented on low prestige ones (animal control, children, culture, education, elderly, minority).
Looking Ahead: Increasing Female Representation on Quasi Governmental Bodies
Some cities have been acknowledging the lack of unequal female representation on these municipal boards, with some taking direct action to change it. In Boston, a commission on women has been tasked with increasing representation on other boards— for every empty seat on a board, gender representation is evaluated and if women are underrepresented, then the empty seat is to be filled by a female. Despite this policy, there are still some boards where women have minimal representation, largely boards categorized as masculine— air pollution and the water resources authority, for example. In Los Angeles, a 50/50 quota was directly enacted, and has led to a female representation rate of 50.2% on all commissions and boards. Professor Holman noted that not all cities may have as much flexibility or backing to enact strict gender quotas as LA was able to, so for some cities it may be a longer process to increase female representation.
Achieving greater gender representation may be a challenge for municipal leaders, but as Professor Holman has demonstrated, it makes a difference in local government in both visible and invisible ways— through policy outcomes, municipal employment, and board appointments.