Opinion :: Letters
Louise Day Hicks to Ayanna Pressley: women in politicsWednesday Jul 8, 2009 When you talk about Boston politics, it is usually seen as a guy thing. For years it was "Women Need Not Apply." Politicians were supposed to be guys. In the Fifties and Sixties, it was the way things were in Boston. I can still remember barrooms barring women from entering. Once my mother saw her father walking into a bar in City Square, Charlestown. He apparently was trying to hide from her, she saw him and went right inside and the sign stating "Women Not Allowed" be damned. Afterwards I asked why she didn’t do as the sign said. She told me it was a stupid sign and didn’t belong there. "This was America," she said.
As a kid, I remember Kathy Craven getting elected to the Boston City Council. She was tougher than nails and once threw an ashtray across the City Council chambers at another councilor who criticized her. You didn’t mess around with Craven. In the Sixties, Louise Day Hicks got herself elected to the Boston School Committee where she gained fame as the chairperson of the board. She was a staunch anti-buser and strong conservative voice. Her middle name was Day but it was really "landslide" because she became a ticket-topper. In 1967 she ran for mayor against Kevin White, the state secretary. It looked like she would become the first ever woman mayor of Boston but White ended up winning. Many think being a woman hurt her and while many male voters didn’t hesitate to put her on the school committee, the mayor’s office seemed a different thing. I really think her gender worked against her that year and again in a 1971 rematch.
Another strong woman’s voice was Pixie Palladino out of East Boston. Like Hicks and Craven before her, Pixie had to be tough. Politics has taken a while to get where it is today. Another person who helped move along the cause was Rosemarie Sansone, who got herself elected to the City Council in the late Seventies. More polished and liberal than women on the ballot before her, she proved women didn’t have to be tougher than nails but just articulate. Sansone was a very effective councilor. Had we not had a four-term Kevin White as mayor, Sansone might have been able to do what Hicks couldn’t. Then in the Nineties, Boston elected Rosaria Salerno to the City Council. Another effective councilor. How often did we hear City Councilor Dapper O’Neil poke fun at her by calling her Sister Sunshine? How often did Dap make references to Peggy Davis-Mullen’s pair of long legs? Hey, I like Dapper, but those kinds of demeaning statements were insulting to all women. He was still caught in a time warp back in the Fifties when women belonged in the kitchen and not City Hall. Things have changed today. Women are more respected in the field of politics. Forget the Sister Sunshine sound bite or leg jokes.
In 1983 I supported Dianne Modica, who ran for City Council that year, and helped her many times afterwards. I supported her, did field work for her and marched with her. Many guys I knew in politics thought I had a thing for Dianne and that I just couldn’t be helping her. Women in politics were still being treated like second-class politicians. Women don’t have to look like Farrah Fawcett to get elected and they don’t have to look like Roseanne either. I support candidates who can make a difference, who are qualified for the job and whom I agree with on the issues.
It is sad that few women get elected in Boston to the City Council and that too often women aren’t even taken seriously when they run. I remember how the media treated both Peggy Davis-Mullen and Maura Hennigan when each ran for mayor. Both of them didn’t have to equally match up with their male opponent, both had to be 150 percent better. Someday, a woman will get elected mayor, not because she’s a woman but because she’s qualified to be mayor.
There are 15 candidates running for City Council At-Large. Two years ago, back in 2007, they cancelled the preliminary election because so few were running. This year the field is larger but there is only one female candidate. She is Ayanna Pressley. She has a great political resume and recently I heard her speak at a city council forum at the Hibernian on Dudley Street. She delivered a really good speech and received a positive response from those at the political forum. Pressley spoke with passion about who she was and where she came from. Talking about her values she learned growing up with a strong mother as her life’s mentor. Ayanna, seemingly, learned from life about surviving and the real value of education. At the Hibernian Hall forum she displayed her innermost understanding of what it means to stand up for others, which explains her desire to serve others on the City Council. Running for and getting elected to a public office doesn’t seem to be her sole goal as much as what she can do once elected. She apparently has a strong desire to work for changes in the way government operates to make Boston work better for everyone. Her goal isn’t to be a role model for other women of young girls, her goal is to be the most effective city councilor she can be.
If she keeps herself focused on that vision of hers, getting elected might not be that difficult. I’m keeping close watch on her candidacy. She has all the makings of a future politician. Her present goal is Boston City Council. This goal seems very reachable in 2009.
Sal Giarratani
Roslindale
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