Increasingly, Women Call the Shots in Local Government
When Mission Viejo Mayor Sherri Butterfield goes with her husband Marion to an event, there is sometimes confusion.
“People will come up to my husband and say, ‘It’s so nice of you to come, Mr. Mayor, and we’re delighted that you brought your wife,'” said Butterfield.
Stereotypes die hard. But when it comes to women in politics, dying they are.
Across the country, women are becoming increasingly visible in seats of political power. The phenomenon is occurring in both major political parties. That fact is underscored in Orange County, where Republican women hold key city and county posts, and where a Latina congresswoman has become the biggest symbol of Democrats’ recent gains in the county.
Women also occupy top jobs in the local government bureaucracy.
Jan Mittermeier, the Orange County’s CEO, oversees a budget approaching $4 billion annually. The Board of Supervisors’ five-member board includes Cynthia Coad. Rosalyn Lever is the Registrar of Voters.
Laurann Cook is the chairwoman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, which is overseeing billions of dollars in construction projects. OCTA’s CEO is Lisa Mills.
Patricia Bates and Marilyn Brewer are two of the county’s seven-member delegation to the state Assembly. Brewer is stepping aside this year, but there is expected to be another woman, Lynn Daucher, to replace her. Democrat Loretta Sanchez’s congressional seat is assured of being a woman because her Republican opponent in the fall election is Gloria Mata Tuchman.
Influence on El Toro
Females are involved on both sides of the county’s most controversial issue, the proposed conversion of El Toro into a commercial airport. Mittermeier is overseeing the airport planning process in her capacity as county CEO, and she brings to the task the prior experience of having been the administrator of John Wayne Airport. Then there is Peggy Ducey, the former assistant city manager at Newport Beach who is now executive director of the pro-airport group, the Orange County Regional Airport Authority. Since taking over her county seat in January 1999, supervisor Coad has become widely acknowledged as the most outspoken, and inventive, of the three pro-airport supervisors.
On the other side of the airport issue is Susan Withrow, a Mission Viejo council woman (and former mayor) who is currently the head of the anti-airport group, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, which has a budget of $6 million this fiscal year to stop the airport. Christina Shea has also played a key role in the anti-airport effort as mayor of Irvine, the largest city opposed to the county’s plan, and the one in whose sphere of influence the Marine base resides.
Gaining Ground
In all, women occupy a little better than a third of city council offices in the county.
Females are the mayors of (in alphabetical order) Brea, Cypress, Dana Point, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Tustin 12 out of 33 Orange County cities.
“We’re taking over. You better watch out,” joked Tustin Mayor Tracy Wills Worley.
And out of the 170 city council members, 57 are women.
Women form a majority on the city councils of Costa Mesa, Laguna Niguel and La Palma. The only cities without a female city council member are Garden Grove and Stanton.
“Every time I turn on cable TV, It seems like all of the mayors in Orange County are women,” Ken Khachigian, a long-time political consultant based in San Clemente.
While one-third representation suggests women still have a way to go after all, half the voters are women,the numbers also suggest significant strides by OC women in recent years.
“When I first became a mayor in 1988, there were four of us,” said Pat Bates, now an assemblywoman from Laguna Niguel. “It’s a banner year for women.”
Orange County appears to be ahead of the national trend. For example, of the 978 mayors of U.S. cities with a population over 30,000, about 192, or 19.6% were women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
“Orange County and California are both progressive,” said Tustin’s Worley. “Women in leadership are accepted and encouraged. Over the last 15 years, there’s been a big movement of women moving up in corporate and government worlds. 20 years ago, it would have been a big deal.”
Conservative Values
The conservative values are evident among the female leadership. They are often Republicans supporting economic growth and issues that resonate among Republicans.
These female leaders say it’s important that they obtain their positions through talent, and they tend to shun the idea of government-imposed quotas.
In many cases they are former homemakers whose children have grown older, freeing them up to pursue politics.
Butterfield said men are more likely to get into politics early in life and to view it as a career, while women tend to get into it “by accident.” For example, Butterfield’s career started when she volunteered to try to get a library built in Mission Viejo.
“A lot of women see school boards and governments as an extension of their community volunteerism,” she said.
Judy Rosener, a professor at the University of California’s Graduate School of Management who has written widely on the role of women in business, said OC is reflecting a national trend of women in politics.
Increased Opportunities
She said it is happening for a variety of reasons. One reason is that term limits have created new opportunities. Another is that political action groups such as Emily’s List and Women in Leadership are supporting female candidates.
In addition, she said women are discovering the possibilities offered by city council jobs, which traditionally had been sought by small businessmen as a way to market themselves to the community.
“What’s happening’s now is that women have independence and a feeling of confidence,” Rosener said. “Women start out in local governments because it’s part-time and they get their feet wet. The growth is incremental, but it’s definitely happening.”
Take the example of new state lawmaker Bates, a mother of two. She said women in South County in the 1980s were very concerned about their quality of life and felt they could improve their communities by having them incorporated as cities.
Bates herself led the drive for Laguna Niguel to become a city and became its first mayor in the late 1980s.
“The incorporation efforts were driven by women and their quests for quality of life set the tone,” she said.
Nationwide Trend
While the number of women in government is growing nationwide, Worley said some people can’t seem to get used to it: “When I travel back to Washington D.C., they’re always surprised to see a female mayor.”
But that can happen locally, too, said Irvine’s Shea: “When I go to an event and people see my name tag, they think my first name is mayor and the second name is Christina,” she said.
“I let them know we do elect females in Orange County, and at times,” here she breaks into a laugh, “they’re attractive and very bright and fit for the task.” n
