When the new City Council holds its first official meeting on January 5th, among the defining attributes of the body’s membership will be the majority of women who dominate its ranks. From 14 in the current Council to 31 the incoming class, with one poised to become Speaker, women will have more power to determine both how the body operates and what issues get the most attention for the first time in its history.
That new dynamic stands in parallel to the incoming mayoralty of Eric Adams, who has already made a series of high profile appointments of women within his administration. But he’s also engaged in some early skirmishes with the new Council, initially backing a male candidate for Speaker and engaging in a fiery exchange of words with Council members over their dueling positions on the use of solitary confinement. He supports it; they oppose it.
That tension between the mayor and the City Council is not unusual. But as members consider their hopes for the upcoming session, women members envisioned a legislative body informed by the characteristics they said define women’s leadership, including a focus on marginalized and underrepresented communities, coupled with the belief that their branch of government can not get steamrolled.
“We are co-leaders in governing the city of New York,” said Councilmember Adrienne Adams, who is on pace to become the first African American woman Speaker of the Council after securing enough public support from a majority of members. Adams said her leadership will be defined by transparency, which means making sure all her members have a voice in debates over policy or approach.
As an example, Councilmember Adams said she supported the position of the 30 Council members who sent a letter to Mayor-elect Adams in response to his comments about returning to the use of solitary confinement, or punitive segregation, at Rikers Island. While the likely-Speaker did not sign on to the letter, she is unequivocally opposed to the use of solitary confinement and noted she was a cosponsor of legislation that would ban its use.
"I stand by my position. I haven't made any secret about that," she told Gothamist/WNYC, despite a scathing rebuke from the Mayor-elect who criticized the members on the letter for their objections and accused them of not wanting to move the city forward.
In terms of style, Councilmember Adams said, “women just govern differently than men.” She said women bring a more nurturing, inclusive and hands-on perspective to the table, like when it comes to dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how it affects single mothers and childcare providers.
She also said the Council can help the city heal from the pandemic by fixing what it’s still getting wrong, like the long waits for testing. “A lot of my members were standing in the cold over the past couple of weeks to get tested,” said Adams, “We should have learned that lesson.”
Another woman joining the Council, Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn, said she ran for her seat to prioritize women. She will be the body’s first Bangladeshi and first Muslim woman member. To jumpstart those efforts, earlier this month she met with the families of Amber Rose Isaac and Denise Williams — two Black women whose deaths were connected to childbirth here in the city — as well as with healthcare providers advocating for better care.
“I think this is going to be a real opportunity for us to transform what care and what ending Black maternal mortality looks like in the city,” said Hanif. The maternal mortality rates for Black New Yorkers have been documented at eight times the rate of other New Yorkers despite pledges from elected leaders to address the crisis.
Hanif also talked about her hope for a “feminist budget,” that shifts investments towards programs like universal childcare, reproductive healthcare, permanent housing for survivors of domestic violence and deeper support for minority and women-owned businesses, while it moves money away from the New York City Police Department.
“I look forward to the discourse, the debate, that's the climate I want in the Council, and in our government,” said Hanif.
As a veteran elected official re-elected to her post representing the Upper West Side in the City Council after eight years as Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer said one of the benefits of her unsuccessful bid for Speaker was that she has met with all of the new incoming members.
She also knows what it’s like to serve in the body when women are in the minority and expects it to operate differently now that they are the majority. “There's going to be a lot more questions and a lot more, ‘why is this happening, what can we do specifically to change, we did our homework,’’' said Brewer.
Within her own district, Brewer said she was focused on public safety and managing expectations around COVID-19.
“Manhattan in particular needs a lot of help, sometimes more than the other boroughs right now, because so many people have left and it is the economic engine,” said Brewer.
While she was optimistic about the work the legislative branch could accomplish, particularly with women in the majority, Brewer also praised Mayor-elect Adams' appointments of five women deputy mayors, describing the “sisterhood” that exists among women who work in city and civic life.
“I know them all,” said Brewer. “I have everybody’s cell phone.”
