N.Y.C. Council President Discusses Lack of Women in Political Offices

Women are still underrepresented in public office in spite of improvements of the status of women during recent years, Carol Bellamy, president of the New York city council, told a group of 18 people at the Lowell House junior common room last night.

Legislative Lack

Bellamy said that although the number of women in the state legislatures has increased, they still comprise only about 8 per cent of the total. Most of these are in the larger legislatures in which the job is considered part time and compensation is lower, she added.

Bellamy said the three main reasons for the shortage of women in these jobs are an unwillingness by the major political parties to run women candidates in "winnable" listricts, candidates' difficulty to get the public to take them seriously, and the belief of many potential candidates that they are not qualified.

Possible Improvement

She saw possible improvement, however, in increased legitimacy of candidacies due to the larger number of women in politics and a prevailing mood in the country against incumbent candidates.

Following her discussion of women in politics, Bellamy talked about the problems of cities in general and New York City in particular.

Main Problem

"The main problem is providing services with fewer resources," Bellamy said.

She said there was a need to balance New York City's budget in order to restore the city's credit rating but pointed out that it was very difficult to do since 75 per cent of the budget couldn't be touched.

Bellamy's speech was part of the Ford dinner speaker series.