Newton Alderman Emily Norton is proposing changing the city’s charter to include the term “alderwoman,” The TAB and The Globe report. What do you think?
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by Greg Reibwoman | Sep 26, 2014 | Newton | 14 comments
Newton Alderman Emily Norton is proposing changing the city’s charter to include the term “alderwoman,” The TAB and The Globe report. What do you think?
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September 13, 2023
Men's Crib September 13, 2023 5:20 am
There are FAR MORE IMPORTANT things for the BOA to be focusing on in this city. Please don’t waste our time with this nonsense. And for the record…I am a woman and I don’t care if they called me an Alderman or if I drive over MANhole covers. Seriously.
There are really two separate questions: (1) what to call them in chamber, and (2) the formal title for the Charter and ballots. The chamber part is a no brainer — we can’t be calling a women a man, even if Alderman is like the word “German” which feels non-sexist. The Charter part is less of an issue, but it does control what is on a campaign sign so that should be thought about carefully.
Imagine someone (a guy) walking into a lawyer’s office and saying he just took a job at the “Alder-ego Cafe” on Comm Ave and the funniest thing is that everyone from day-one has always called him “waitress”. He doesn’t know why, but when his friends show up it’s awkward, to say the least. And how does he explain this to his kids? I’m guessing the lawyer would encourage him to make issue with it. I would.
If we do change the charter, we should change “alderman” altogether for everyone. It’s an old English title and our constitution tried to rid us of old English titles. (I’m definitely not an historian so correct my understanding…)
The term Alderman is outmoded and created in a time when women couldn’t vote, let alone be elected to anything. It shouldn’t take much time to change it – take a vote and do it. But I think “Alderwoman” is a mouthful and “alder” means old. So I favor renaming the BOA to City Council and the elected members should be called Councilors. No age, no gender and it’s a term that is widely use in the 21st century. Do it and move on.
The fact that elected members of the BOA are in favor of this change tells me it should get done. Yes we need the BoA to address many important issues, but I don’t think we should be referring to them with archaic agist/sexist titles while they are doing that work. Some people think of alderman as a gender neutral term, but many others don’t. Nobody should have a problem with Councilor.
In the late 19th Century, Newton did have a bicameral City Council which was comprised of a Board of Aldermen and a Common Council. It should also be noted that until 1920, women were neither allowed to vote nor serve in elected office and that a woman was not elected to the Board of Aldermen until 1953. When Barbara Brousal-Glaser is sworn in on October 6th, the Board of Aldermen will have a total of ten women.
The name should be changed to something gender neutral.
Ted, was Newton’s bicameral legislature conceived broadly to include a more populist body and a more deliberative body, as is common in bicameral legislatures? How many councilors and how many aldermen were there, and did they serve different length terms?
It would be great if Newton could go ‘back to the future’ and use “Common Council” and Councilor as gender neutral terms having historic precedent.
According to the memo, the Common Council was considered the lower house, and the Board of Aldermen was the higher house, not unlike the House of Representatives and the Senate in the Massachusetts Legislature and the US Congress. Or the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament. Take your pick.
When Newton adopted a City Charter in 1874, there were two members of the Common Council elected from within each ward, and one member of the Board of Aldermen elected at large from each of 6 wards. Two years later a seventh ward was added. An eighth ward was not added until 1958.
The City Council was abolished in 1897 in favor of a unicameral legislature known as the Board of Aldermen, and kept the size of the body the same at 21, but flipped the representation to two at large and one ward alderman from each ward.
The title should definitely be changed to something gender neutral!
I don’t much care, but I’m somewhat sympathetic. If restaurants had only waitresses and decided to hire me as the first male, I’m not sure I’d like being called a “waitress”, an obviously feminine word, even if the word waiter didn’t exist, like seamstress instead of tailor. Gender neutral or something different for women seems to make sense.
TWT – I agree with you that time shouldn’t be wasted on this issue. Just change the name ASAP and be done with it. I seriously doubt that anyone has strong opinions about any of the gender neutral titles.
Is there any substantive difference between a city council and a board of aldermen?
@Amanda, the Massachusetts Municipal Association published the following online question and answer in 2001:
In 2014, after over 100 years, Everett became the last city to do away with its bicameral form of government and abolished its 25 member board of aldermen in favor of an 11 member city council.
Ted: Thanks so much for the information. I’ve always wondered why Boston’s city council is smaller than Newton’s B of A while serving a population many times larger, and now (I guess) I know: Tradition!
Change the name to “City Council” and downsize it to 16 councillors.
THM: Thanks for the background info.
Da nada.