Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

New Boston City Council president Kim Janey is pictured at Boston City Hall.
New Boston City Council president Kim Janey is pictured at Boston City Hall on Jan. 6, 2020. Boston entered a new political frontier Monday, officially ushering in the most diverse City Council in the citys history and electing new leadership with what councilors said is a proactive agenda to tackle inequities in housing, transportation, and education access. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Politics

Kim Janey will become Boston’s first Black and woman mayor

Janey is expected to join a small group of Black women who lead the nation’s largest cities.

Barbara Rodriguez

State Politics and Voting Reporter

Barbara Rodriguez portrait

Published

2021-01-08 17:26
5:26
January 8, 2021
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Boston has never had a Black person or a woman serve as mayor. That is now set to change. 

Kim Janey, city council president, is slated to become mayor following President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to his Cabinet this week.

The Boston city charter specifies that the city council president becomes acting mayor if the job becomes vacant. The distinction means she “may only perform urgent tasks” and cannot make permanent appointments. Janey was elected to the city council in 2017 and became city council president last year.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Janey said in a Twitter post that if Walsh is confirmed as Biden’s Labor secretary, she was “ready to take the reins and lead our city through these difficult times.”

Janey is expected to join a small group of Black women leading the nation’s largest cities.

Data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University (CAWP) shows as of June 2020, there were 27 women serving as mayors in the 100 largest American cities. Of those, 10 are women of color. Six of them are Black (Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta; Muriel Bowser in Washington, DC; London Breed in San Francisco; LaToya Cantrell in New Orleans, Louisiana; Lori Lightfoot in Chicago; and Vi Alexander Lyles in Charlotte, North Carolina). Sharon Weston-Broome, the mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was previously on the list but her city has fallen out of the population criteria.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

The number of Black women serving as mayors in the nation’s 100 most populous cities has increased in recent years, according to a report released in 2019 by CAWP and Higher Heights, an organization that works to elect more Black women to office.

The data at the time showed that in the last five years, 10 Black women had been elected as mayor in those populous cities. In 2014, it was just two Black women.

Several of these women mayors have led their cities during a global pandemic and racial injustice that’s played out in communities rather than through policy at the federal level.

Kelly Dittmar, director of research at CAWP, said there’s no single reason why Black women’s representation is up in mayoral office, but she noted there are still challenges to Black women serving in higher office. They are among the most active voters, but there has been slow change in their representation in elected office. There has never been a Black woman elected governor, and though the ascension of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is historic, it also means there will be no Black women in the U.S. Senate. More women of color have been vocal about the additional barriers to running for office, though data shows candidates of color win at the same rates as White men.

“I don’t think there is a way to predict, ‘Oh, if you have more Black women as big-city mayors, will that lead to a Black woman governor?’ I don’t think it’s apples to apples,” Dittmar said. “But I do think when you see Black women in those roles, and particularly to the extent that they’re seen as effective leaders in these roles and they make a national name for themselves, that it gets to the same conversation we’re having with Harris about normalizing Black women’s political and executive leadership.”

Janey’s ascension as mayor will depend on the timing of Walsh’s expected resignation. There will be a mayoral race this year, and at least two women of color, Andrea Campbell and Michelle Wu, who are both council members, have announced their candidacies.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

From the Collection

On The Rise

Illustration of three women marching
  • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

    Candice Norwood · October 11
  • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

    Nadra Nittle · September 8
  • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

    Candice Norwood · July 20

Up Next

Politics

The women who saved the boxes of electoral votes during a riot in the Capitol

A Senate aide directed staff to protect the three mahogany boxes containing the certified electoral college votes while rioters stormed the Capitol Wednesday afternoon. 

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram