In honor of the first-ever female majority in the New York City
Council, the Gardiner-Shenker Student Scholars researched women in
local government and utilized the Archives' City Council
Collection. Of the Council's 51 district representatives, 31 of
them are female, and they represent a wide variety of
socio-economic backgrounds.
Over the course of the year, the students conducted primary
research and learned about specific City Council members whom they
wished to interview. The students prepared and workshopped their
questions with their faculty mentors and peers before conducting
oral history interviews in groups, as well as individually and in
pairs.
The interviews were inspiring to the students, who all felt they'd
gained new insight into the workings of city government. These
interviews will be archived for future researchers at the
LaGuardia and Wagner Archives and excerpts are shared on this
website. Students wrote papers and created photo projects based on
issues that they discussed in the interviews.
With this project, we seek to encourage students to become more
deeply engaged with their communities and district leaders. We
hope to encourage active civic engagement and awareness of local
government. Finally, this work celebrates the historic moment of
having the first female majority in City Council, five female
Deputy Mayors, and a female City Council Speaker, Adrienne Adams.