Tag: New Orleans City Council

A new Tulane University report finds that women are both running for office more frequently and winning more elections in New Orleans in the years since Hurricane Katrina. In "Assessing Equity in Political Representation in New Orleans," authors Mirya R. Holman and Chloe Schwanz found that women made up the majority of the New Orleans City Council in every council cycle since Katrina, whereas other city councils nationally are typically 25 to 30 percent female. New Orleans also has elected an average of two women per election since 2005, up from 1.17 women in the pre-Katrina years. "With the election of our first woman mayor, along with a majority women and people of color city council, New Orleans moves into a new era of representation." The report contrasts New Orleans with both state and national trends in representation for both women and people of color. The increasing presence of women in city politics also goes against national trends, where less than 20 percent of Congress and 25 percent of state legislatures are female. According to the authors' research, this matters because elected officials who represent the characteristics of a population — such as sharing a race or gender — tend to advocate for the interests of that group. For example, both women mayors and black mayors tend to increase those groups' municipal employment. The report also touches on the success of Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell as indicative of both New Orleans political traditions (such as a person who identifies as black holding the mayor's office in New Orleans in recent decades) and changes to the political landscape, including the ascendance of women. Though black women's numbers in city politics have increased, making up 34 percent of black candidates in local elections — up from 25 percent since 2005 — black representation overall is slightly down.