Lake Forest has an all-male City Council. It’s the first time in the City’s history that we’ve had an all-male Council. An all-male Council is unusual, not only for Lake Forest, but County wide. At any one time you can count the number of all-male Councils on a single hand, and occasionally there are no all-male Councils. No City is historically misogynistic, and at any one time the list of all-male Councils has included Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Garden Grove, La Palma, etc.
Though almost all City Councils have at least one woman on them, women are under-represented. Right now fewer than 30% of City Council seats are held by women yet women are slightly more than half the population in Orange County.
But all is not so grim for civic-minded women. When women run, they are far more likely to get elected than men. When elected, women are more likely to be voted Mayor or Mayor ProTem. In recent years we’ve had women Mayors in Brea, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach, Orange, San Juan Capistrano, and Seal Beach. We’ve had women Mayor ProTem in Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Stanton, and Yorba Linda.
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Why is it that women are less likely to run, but more likely to get elected and if elected, more likely to become Mayor or Mayor ProTem? That will be the topic for a seminar on September 30 from 10 am to 11:30 am at the E l Toro Library. You can attend in person or you can watch the WebCast. For more information, click here.
Pictured above are some of the participants, including Trish Kelley (Former Mayor, Mission Viejo), Barbara Kogerman (Mayor, Laguna Hills), and Leah Basile (City Council Candidate, Lake Forest).
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.
Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.
