March is Women’s History Month, established to recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of women, particularly those who fought for a woman’s right to vote. An impromptu dissertation by City Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien at last week’s City Council meeting was greeted as fitting.
The commentary was prompted when fellow Councilor John A. Michitson, reading the minutes of a recent Citizen’s Outreach Committee meeting, revealed, among other things, a desire by the public for ward-based representation to ensure that certain ethnic groups are being fully represented. That is when O’Brien pointed out that there is another group of citizens that are under-represented in government, specifically women.
“We need to embrace more women coming in and with that you will get a diversity of populations representing many different cultures, because we are your mothers. We are your sisters and we are your daughters,” she said.
O’Brien went on to say that she hopes that other women will look at her and realize that she is a wife, a mother and a nurse but still she is able to hold an elected office and that they will realize that they can do it too.