This is a biography of Bertha Knight Landes, who, in 1926, became
the first woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
In 1926, Bertha Knight Landes made history as the
first woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city. This biography of
Mayor Landes of Seattle by Sandra Haarsager reveals an intelligent,
pragmatic woman who used urban reform to order city priorities,
making the business of government not just business but the welfare
of its citizens. Landes and her husband were Seattle pioneers, moving
there in 1895. Through participation in women's clubs she honed
her leadership skills and began to advance the causes of both urban
reform and feminism, although she called herself neither a reformer
nor a feminist. Landes's first public office was a seat on the Seattle
City Council. Her vision of the city as "a larger home"
contrasted with the prevailing emphasis on businesslike efficiency
but reflected an effective, results-oriented strategy. On the council,
Landes promoted city planning and zoning, the licensing and regulation
of dance halls and clubs, and improved public-health and safety
programs. Relying on a campaign team of politically inexperienced
women, Landes was elected mayor by the largest margin Seattle had
seen in a mayoral vote. To her existing agenda for the city she
added forward-looking environmental goals, police training, and
social concerns such as hospitals and recreation programs. The press
treated Landes as a novelty and found it necessary to reassure the
community that she was no New Woman. Aware of her role as an example
of what women could achieve in public office, Landes insisted on
doing whatever was expected of a mayor, including opening baseball
games and hiking to dam sites. In her bid for reelection she was
defeated by a secretly financed, mean-spirited political unknown
who ran a negative campaign attacking Landes on the basis of gender
and class. Drawing on the theories of Michel Foucault and Victor
Turner, the conclusion explores issues of power, social change,
and women in politics, connecting Landes's experiences to the much-touted
1992 Year.
"In this compelling biography, Haarsager traces
the making of a female politician during the Progressive era. Acquiring
her political skills through participation in women's clubs, Landes
won followers during her tenure on the Seattle City Council. She
adopted the feminist plea to make the city of Seattleinto a 'larger
home.' She promoted zoning laws and city planning ordinances,regulated
dance halls, and improved public safety and health programs. Landes
belonged to an environmental advocacy group, bringing environmental
concernsand goals to her mayoral agenda. Haarsager uses the theoretical
approaches of Michel Foucault and Victor Turner to explore issues
of gender and power during an era when both men and women were leery
of a woman in a powerful, public position. Her sources, skillfully
adopted, include oral histories, the BerthaKnight Landes Papers,
and numerous narrative and theoretical monographs." - Choice.
"Like so many of her successful sisters, Landes left few papers.
. . . Haarsager's approach to this paucity of sources is to emphasize
context, arguing that Landes is significant 'for what she embodied
as well as what she accomplished.' . . . Haarsager's detailed analysis
of the campaigns and administrationof Landes provides a good case
study of the complexities faced in building and sustaining coalitions
by women once they achieved the rare political office in the post-suffrage
1920s. She concludes with a lengthy chapter examining Landes's life
in terms of Michel Foucault's power/knowledge link and the liminality
theory advanced by Victor Turner. Here the elusive flesh-and-blood
Landes, who emerges only fleetingly with quotes like 'there's more
to being a mayor than just playing around with Queen Marie and Lindbergh
when they come to town', is finally and unnecessarily drowned in
context and connections." - The American Historical Review.
"A biography of Bertha Knight Landes (1868-1943), the first
woman elected mayor of a major US city. Drawing on the theories
of Michel Foucault and Victor Turner, the conclusion explores issues
of power, social change, and women in politics." - Booknews.
Haarsager provides a much-needed biography of the first woman elected
mayor of a major American city. Responding to the ``Year of the
Woman'' and drawing upon the electoral experiences of 1992, Haarsager
provides a richly detailed narrative that is as much a chronicle
of Seattle and America early in this century as it is a biography
of Landes. Knight's brief tenure as Seattle's mayor, from 1926 to
1928, is fit into the context of the Progressive era's municipal
reforms and the growing activism of women in America's political
life. The importance of women's clubs to those sociopolitical changes
is a central theme of the book. While the conclusions Haarsager
draws from Michel Foucault's relational power and Victor Turner's
social change theories may appeal primarily to feminist scholars
and political theorists, her book provides important insights into
social and political change in urban America. In that regard, it
will be a valuable resource and interesting reading for urban studies
scholars and informed lay readers." - Library Journal.
"When Landes (1868-1943) became Seattle's mayor in 1926, she
was the first woman elected to lead a major U.S. city. In a carefully
researched study of Landes's political career, Haarsager, an assistant
professor of communications at the University of Idaho, focuses
on the women's club movement, which blossomed in the early 1900s
and provided wives and mothers like Landes an opportunity to develop
sophisticated administrative and organizational skills. Earlier
in her career, Landes was elected to the Seattle city council and
served as its president. As acting mayor, she shocked her colleagues
by firing a corrupt chief of police. As mayor, she fought for social
and municipal reform. Haarsager posits that Landes's bid for reelection
was unsuccessful because of gender bias and negative campaigning.
She provides an interesting analysis of women and power based on
the theories of French philosopher Michel Foucault." - Publisher's
Weekly
