As you probably know, Donnalee Lozeau was elected mayor of Nashua last night, becoming the first woman to hold that office in the city's 153-year history. For that and her many other significant accomplishments, Lozeau is to be congratulated. But did you know that the first woman to be elected mayor of an American town was Susanna Medora Salter who was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887?*
In betweeen Salter and Lozeau, there have been many other prominent female mayors in the United States, including Dianne Feinstein, the first female mayor of San Francisco (in 1978), and Jane M. Byrne, the first woman elected mayor of Chicago (in 1979).**
The library has numerous resources on the topic of women, leadership and/or history. Here are a few that caught my eye:
Tough choices : a memoir / Carly Fiorina. (2006) - (Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard)
Meg Whitman : president and CEO of eBay / Leslie Alan Horvitz. (2006)
A woman in charge : the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton / Carl Bernstein. (2007)
The confidante : Condoleezza Rice and the creation of the Bush legacy / Glenn Kessler. (2007)
Edith Wharton / Lee Hermione. (2007)
Gertrude Bell : queen of the desert, shaper of nations / Georgina Howell. (2007)
Well-behaved women seldom make history / by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. (2007)
Sources:
* "Famous Firsts by American Women", http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womensfirsts1.html, viewed on Nov. 6, 2007.
** "Jane Byrne (American Politician)", Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-1270785/Jane-Byrne, viewed on Nov. 6, 2007