I know everyone is excited about starting a new era in City Hall with the election of Michael Nutter on November 6th. With all the challenges he’ll face, and that we as Philadelphians face, it seems premature to talk about the next mayoral election, but…we have to talk about this now if we want to elect a woman in 2015.

Why should we elect a woman?

Well, after 97 male Mayors of this city (98 when you count Nutter) it sort of seems like it’s time. Even more importantly, there are a lot of great women in the city who are ready to lead. You don’t even have to look much further than the last two Mayors to see men who were each partnered with very intelligent and successful women (Naomi Post and Midge Rendell). And our new Mayor is with a woman equally formidable, in Lisa Nutter.

It’s not just these three women either.

Kathy Black, Sharmaine Matlock-Turner, Sandra Dungee-Glen, Della Clark, Nora Lichtash, Jane Golden, Ronda Goldfein, Kathy Padilla, Sister Mary Scullion, Janet Ryder, Susan Gobreski, Jane Pepper. Ellen Somekawa, Denise Brown, Shelly Yanoff. not to mention a new generation of up and coming women like Rodnie Jamison, Gloria Caserez, Casey Cook, Rue Landau, Stacey Sobel, Jen Murphy, Hannah Miller, Anne Dicker, Beth McConnell, Jennine Miller, Kate Houston, Nijmie Dzurinko, Amadee Braxton, Helen Gym, Shivaani Selveraj, Laura Weinbaum, Fareeda Mabry, and others would all make amazing elected officials.

Speaking of elected officials, there are six women currently on City Council, and one more will very likely be added after November 6th when Maria Quinones-Sanchez wins her General Election.

In summary, there’s no shortage of talented women who could run for elected office in this city. Not all of these women work in politics or work on politics, but I think that is maybe something that really recommends them. You don’t have to have been in City Hall for the past 20 years to have made a difference in our city.

At least one of these women if not a lot more, should consider running for Mayor in 2015. However judging by the number of women who ran in the 07 Primary for Council, how likely does that seem? And what could we as voters and citizens do to get more thinking about running?