Boston gets its first female mayor of color, proving that ‘building the pipeline works’

-The pipeline works. This morning, the U.S. is taking stock of the results of yesterday’s off-cycle elections—including a Boston mayoral race that elevated the first-ever woman of color to lead the New England city.

Michelle Wu, a 36-year-old progressive and Elizabeth Warren mentee, won the seat decisively. Wu is Asian American, with parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. The New York Times has a compelling profile of the mayor-elect and her family here.

One of the most interesting aspects of the race for Boston mayor was that, no matter who won, it would have been a historic outcome. Annissa Essaibi George, Wu’s opponent, is also a woman of color, a first-generation Arab-Polish American.

So, how does a city that has never been led by anyone other than white men find itself with not one, but two strong candidates to break that streak?

According to this insightful piece from The 19^th, it all goes back to the Boston City Council. For years, the 13-person council didn’t reflect the diversity of the city it represents. (Boston is a majority minority city—i.e. more than half of its citizens are people of color.) It wasn’t until 2009 that the first woman color (now-U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley) was elected to the body. Today, the council is majority women and people of color. The city’s mayoral primary in September featured four non-white women who serve on the council, including Wu and Essaibi George. 

One of the factors that has helped drive that transformation, according to The 19^th, is a local chapter of Emerge, an organization that trains Democratic women to run for office. (Pressley helped start the Boston chapter in 2008.) Emerge Massachusetts says it has since trained nearly 500 women, more than 100 of whom are serving in the state’s government, Wu and Essaibi George among them.

“For me, it’s not surprising that we’re going to see Boston with its first elected woman mayor, woman of color mayor, and that woman will be an Emerge alum of Massachusetts no matter who wins,” A’shanti Gholar, president of Emerge, told The 19th. “This is how building the pipeline works. It really starts with that one woman who makes change but then continues to lift as she climbs into new roles.”

She continues: “This work does take time. Change doesn’t happen overnight.”

There’s a lesson here—and one that has implications that extend far beyond politics. To alter who’s at the top, you have to start much farther down the ladder, making a long-term commitment to change. Yes, it takes time, effort, resources, patience—but ultimately you end up with something much larger than any one person, or even any single “first” like the one notched by Boston last night. You get a future filled with new faces, ready to rewrite the course of history.

Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee

The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe. 

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- Off the ballot. There's one politician who wasn't on the ballot last night. Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who came into office after the 2017 white supremacist rally, opted not to run for reelection after coming to believe that "Charlottesville isn't ready for the change the city said it wanted four years ago." Politico

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- Historic confirmation. The Senate confirmed Justice Beth Robinson to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making her the first openly gay woman to serve on any federal district court. Robinson is known for her work as a lawyer on the Vermont case that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. NPR

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Jen Oneal is stepping down from her role as Activision Blizzard co-leader, three months after she stepped into the position alongside Mike Ybarra, who will stay on as a solo executive. L’Oréal USA appointed Marissa Pagnani McGowan chief sustainability officer for North America. Serta Simmons Bedding promoted COO Shelley Huff to CEO. McKinney hired Catrina Dos Reis as director of recruiting. Everly Health hired Cindy R. Kent, former Brookdale Senior Living exec and Best Buy board member, as COO. Afiniti hired Caroline O’Brien as chief data officer. Bazaarvoice hired Zarina Lam Stanford as CMO. Uber's Zhenya Lindgardt joins the Commons Project as CEO. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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- Who is Huma, really? Huma Abedin has remained elusive figure throughout her decades in the spotlight beside her boss, Hillary Clinton, and then during the breakdown of her marriage to Anthony Weiner. Now, she's telling her own story for the first time in her book Both/And. The Cut

ON MY RADAR

Police hurt thousands of teens every year. A striking number are Black girls The Marshall Project

A climate change disaster led this shy 24-year-old from Uganda into activism NPR

Will Smith, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams on the journey of making King Richard EW

PARTING WORDS

"I made the decision to make the performance about a real woman and not about the idea of a bad woman."

-Lady Gaga, on playing Patrizia Reggiani in the forthcoming movie House of Gucci