Food & Drink
Women in Seattle’s City Council Race
The general election could yield the first ever female majority
By Seattle Mag September 17, 2015
This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
Much has been made of Seattle’s first-ever council race featuring seven of nine positions selected by geographic district. With 45 candidates, it certainly yielded a clamorous primary. But the general election holds the potential for another first: a female majority. Of the 18 candidates on the ballot, 10 are women, and five led in the primary.
A gender shift could add heat to the light recently shed on the city’s pay gap for women. Last year, Seattle was called out for having the greatest male-female pay disparity in the 50 largest U.S. cities—much of that gap is driven by our “brogrammer”-dominated tech sector. The city government, Seattle’s fourth-largest employer, is also part of the problem. According to an internal study, the city pays men 9.5 percent more than women on average. There’s no guarantee a female majority on the council would make this a priority, but as the votes roll in this month, one can dream.