Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Female mayors experience political violence at a much higher rate than their male counterparts, according to the results of a new study<\/a> conducted by the Mayors Innovation Project.<\/p>\n The findings come as America faces an increase in political violence \u2014 including the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month and the killing of Minnesota State Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know if America is ready to talk about the steps that are \u2026 giving greater permission and room for violence,\u201d said former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, who helped develop and facilitate the survey and conducted interviews with some of the other current and former elected officials who were polled.<\/p>\n According to the poll, female mayoral candidates reported experiencing harassment in greater numbers both while campaigning and while in office. Eighty-four percent of female candidates were harassed while campaigning, compared to 64 percent of male candidates. And once in office, 25 percent of female mayors experienced harassment at least three times per month, while 10 percent of male mayors reported the same level and frequency of harassment. Nearly twice as many female mayors also reported threats to their family as male mayors.<\/p>\n The survey was conducted in February of about 235 mayors, who answered the survey online. Respondents were about 60 percent male and 60 percent were full-time mayors (versus part-time). Of the respondents, 43 percent represented cities of less than 30,000 people and 42 percent represented cities with a population of 30,000 to 100,000. Only 15 percent represented cities over 100,000. The survey was funded by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and conducted in collaboration with RepresentWomen and the Center for American Women in Politics.<\/p>\n Former Kankakee, Illinois, Mayor Chasity Wells-Armstrong also helped develop and conduct the survey. She herself was the target of harassment as mayor, and told POLITICO in an interview that she did not want to run for a second term in part because of the threats she experienced.<\/p>\n While in office, Wells-Armstrong said someone shot a bullet through her garage door. Another constituent posted a photo of a mailer she sent out with the caption \u201cthis is good for target practice.\u201d And one man left a voicemail saying that she should be thrown off the third floor.<\/p>\n The poll found that this type of harassment came at a cost to the mayor and to the city, in terms of additional security and also the time taken to deal with harassment or threats that could have been spent dealing with city concerns.<\/p>\n After the poll, the Innovation Project also conducted in-depth interviews with 49 female mayors. One of them said a local school had to add extra security after a potential threat was made to a mayor\u2019s grandchild, and another said they spent half of their $10,000 salary putting up security cameras.<\/p>\n By far, the most common experience reported by mayors was degrading comments on social media, said Katya Spear, co-author of the report and managing director of the Mayors Innovation Project.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so pervasive that we basically stopped reporting on it,\u201d Spear explained.<\/p>\n