Just 14 years ago, women constituted a majority of Jacksonville City Council members.
For the 1999-2003 council term, 10 women were elected to serve on the 19-member panel.
Now, there are three.
"Something's the matter," summed up Jacksonville civic leader Pam Paul at the Monday community kickoff of "Nine in 15," a grassroots effort to encourage qualified women — and men — to run for the nine open council seats in 2015.
"We're about electing qualified candidates and we have an opportunity to elect qualified women candidates," said business leader Carol Thompson, a retired Baptist Health executive and the first woman to chair the JAX Chamber. That was 2001.
Paul recounted that she met with Thompson and Elaine Brown, who was one of the women on the 1999 council, more than a year ago at Bonefish Grill to discuss the issue. That's when she determined that something, indeed, was the matter.
Since then, they've met with other women and men to discuss how to increase the number of qualified candidates, especially women, to run for office. The focus settled on council because of the low number of women on it and the large number of seats coming open.
On Monday, about 165 women, and several men, joined at the WJCT studios Downtown to roll out the initiative.
PBS NewsHour co-anchor Judy Woodruff started the event by providing insights into the national and state numbers regarding women in political leadership as well as the issues and challenges of leadership in general.
Thompson and Paul said they thought about creating a formal organization but opted to keep it informal.
"We want to become a clearinghouse," Thompson said, referring to helping candidates connect with training and monetary assistance.
Training initiatives include the chamber's Political Leadership Institute. Funding is more direct. "We can help write checks or find people who can," she said.
"We became what we think is a force," Paul said.
Thompson emphasized that the "Nine in 15" participants do not endorse candidates as a group.
She and Woodruff both talked about a current state of political partisanship and lack of cooperation and how women bring a diverse dynamic to the debate.
A PowerPoint showed that of Duval County's 547,489 registered voters, 54.5 percent are women and 45.5 percent are men.
"We believe women bring attributes to the table," Thompson said.
The deadline to register for a council race is July 13. The first election in 2015 is March 14 and the general election is May 19.
Of the three women serving on council, District 8 representative Denise Lee is serving her last term. Lori Boyer, District 5, and Kimberly Daniels, At-Large Group 1, are serving their first terms.
The Duval County Supervisor of Elections website shows at least eight women, including Daniels, have filed for six seats in the 2015 council races. One of those women, Lynn Sherman, a candidate in District 8, spoke at the "Nine in 15" event.
"I look forward to being a part of helping Jacksonville reach its potential," Sherman said.
Sherman said it hadn't been on her radar to run for office, but she decided to do so after discussing city politics with a close group. "After a few minutes," she decided, "why not me?"
Woodruff outlined the reasons women often don't run for political office, saying studies have shown that:
• Women are more likely to perceive the political environment as biased against them.
• Women are less likely to consider themselves qualified.
• Women, as political candidates, can be less confident, less competitive and more risk averse.
• Women react more negatively to "nasty" campaigns.
• Women are less likely to be asked to run for office.
• Women still are more responsible for caring for the family and home, although men are taking larger roles.
"These factors can be undone," Woodruff said. "If women don't try, if you don't push, we're not going to see change."
Asked from the audience why a woman, or man, would want to run in that environment, Woodruff replied: "To change it."
Thompson closed the presentation with a pronouncement:
"The change in our world could begin in 2015."
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466