New York City’s primary election results were announced last week, and although this election cycle looked a little different with the implementation of rank-choice voting, there was something very familiar. The mayoral results. Whoever wins the general election in November will be the Big Apple’s 110th male mayor in a row. That’s right, folks: New York City has been run by males for over 350 years. I don’t know why this fact shocked me as much as it did; it’s not like men haven’t run the entire nation since its inception. I suppose there is some consolation in the fact that the second and third-place candidates in the Democratic race were women, with Kathryn Garcia trailing the victorious Eric Adams by a mere one percentage point. Garcia had this to say of her run, “This campaign has come closer than any other in history at breaking that glass ceiling and electing New York City’s first female mayor. We cracked the hell out of it and it’s ready to be broken.” But when will it be broken? This election is not the first in which a woman has come so close but cannot quite break through.
I remember when I was in second grade and was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. The responses of my classmates were typical of second graders; teachers, firefighters, doctors. My response? The first female President of the United States. I would like to take a moment here to applaud the gender equality I oozed at such a tender age. Now, as a grown woman, I wonder if I will get to witness the first female President of the United States in my lifetime. I would certainly like to hope so.
Huge congrats to Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley, who did indeed crack the hell out of that glass ceiling.
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I, like you, am surprised that New York City has lasted 350 years without benefiting from the wisdom of a female mayor. At the same time, I am clear that it has only been since the 1990's that women broke through the corporate glass ceiling. Before this time, women were really only able to reach the top of middle management but never be truly in charge. New York City being the epitome of corporate America, it's no wonder we're still having this discussion.