St. Paul makes history with all-female city council, a rarity among large US cities
ST. PAUL, Minn. — When St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali looked at her fellow council members during their first meeting this week, she saw that all of the member seats were filled by women — a first for Minnesota’s capital.
Experts who track women in politics say St. Paul, with a population of about 300,000, is the first major U.S. city they know of with an all-female city council. But even as council members celebrate the milestone, they express more excitement about what the all-female council can achieve in the coming year.
“We are a multi-religious, multi-cultural group of women. People trusted our professional experiences as much as they trusted our personal experiences. … And we have a clear policy vision on which we were elected,” Jalali said in an interview.
All seven women are under the age of 40 and six of the seven are women of color. From civil engineering to nonprofit direction, they have a wide range of professional experiences, which Jalali says helps capture the city’s diversity.
“I think our community is finally being reflected by the City Council,” Jalali said, adding, “The average age of our community is 32.5 years old. We are a city with a majority of people of color. We have many major racial and ethnic groups, many of which are now represented on this council.”
According to researchers at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, St. Paul is the largest U.S. city to ever have an all-female city council.
Rutgers data shows that women are still underrepresented as municipal officials across the country. Jean Sinzdak, deputy director of the center, said seven out of 10 municipal officeholders nationwide are male, and most of them are white.
“The fact that you have an all-female board and a majority of women of color has a long-term impact on young women and girls seeing them and saying, ‘I can do this too,’” Sinzdak said.
The members held their first city council meeting on Wednesday after being sworn in a day earlier.
Hwa Jeong Kim, vice president of the council, and Jalali said their top priorities include comprehensive housing policies, tenant protections, climate action, public safety interventions that use fewer police officers and more mental health workers, and economic development.
“I feel like women and women of color, queer and trans women have been grieving for a long time — not for things they lost, but for things they never had,” Kim said.
The council “elevates the progressive values of our community more than ever and is committed to doing that difficult work together – not just in a performative way, but in a way that is sustainable and will truly create lasting change,” Jalali added .
The council is a nonpartisan agency, but all seven members are Democrats, she said.
In Minnesota, women made up 35% of municipal officeholders in cities with more than 10,000 residents, tying the state for 16th out of 50 states, tied with Michigan, according to Rutgers data. Alaska and Arizona had the highest percentage of women in municipal government at 45%. North Dakota had the lowest rate at 20%.
Sindzak said left-wing and Democratic communities tend to have more female elected officials because Democratic women outnumber Republican women, making them more likely to run for office.
“It’s no surprise to me that a city like this was the first to reach this milestone,” Sindzak said.
St. Paul is considered a Democratic stronghold.
Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, said the number of women elected to legislative, congressional and municipal offices in the U.S. appears to be consistently plateauing at around 25% to 30%.
“So it’s very important to have a 100% female city council in a major city in the United States. If it’s not the first, it’s one of the first where this has happened – so it’s a big deal,” Kedrowski said.
Kedrowski said Minnesota tends to be ahead of the national average in women’s participation in elected office. Both U.S. senators are women, the lieutenant governor is a woman of color, and the Minnesota legislature has a high percentage of women.
“What’s remarkable about this lineup is not only that it’s all women, but also the age of these women and the diversity of these women,” said Heidi Heitkamp, director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and former US Senator from North Dakota.
“It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity to see what diversity brings in terms of public policy, what things will change because there are different people at the table who haven’t traditionally held these roles,” Heitkamp said.
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Karnowski reported from Minneapolis.
Trisha Ahmed is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15