Mothers of young children a rising political force as Stewart, Simmons lead two of Connecticut’s largest cities

In her campaign for mayor of Stamford, Caroline Simmons discussed her platform with tens of thousands of voters across the city. But some people only had one question for her: “How are you going to manage this all?”

Simmons, the mother of two boys under the age of 3 with a third child due in February, sidestepped the sexist assumption embedded in the question, which is seldom posed to men serving in local government.

“There are millions of women and mothers with young kids doing this every day,” she said Thursday, two days after winning the race. “Moms who were in the front lines during the pandemic, parents who are working and juggling so much.”

Simmons, a Democrat, isn’t the only woman with young children at home who will lead a major Connecticut city. Erin Stewart, the mother of a 15-month-old daughter, was reelected Tuesday to a fifth term as mayor of New Britain, the state’s eighth-largest city.

“Everyone is starting to recognize that just because you’re a mom, it doesn’t mean you’re incapable of having a big job like this,” said Stewart, a Republican.

Mothers with children under 18 remain a rarity in elective office. While they have long powered political movements and filled slots on boards and commissions, women with small children have historically put their ambitions on hold until their kids were grown. Nancy Pelosi delayed running for office until the youngest of her five children was about to graduate from high school.

That’s changing, said Jean Sinzdak, associate director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “More women with kids at home are running‚” she said.

The number of working moms in Congress has jumped significantly in recent years to 33, according to the Vote Mama Foundation, which tracks women with children at all levels of government. But they still represent a tiny fraction of all members. (Democrat Jahana Hayes, who represents Connecticut’s 5th District, is the only woman with a child under 18 in the state’s delegation.)

Still, women with young children are increasingly visible, both on the campaign trail and in office, Sinzdak said.

“The conventional wisdom for a very long time for women with kids at home was to not emphasize their children, in case voters wondered who’s at home taking care of the kids,” Sinzdak said. “There was this sort of thought that it would be a deterrent to voters, but what we’ve seen in the last couple of election cycles is that women who have children have started using motherhood as an asset, to say my experience as a mother is valuable when it comes to policymaking and the decisions that affect our community.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made history in 2018 as the first world leader to bring her baby to the United Nations general assembly meeting. That same year, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois became the first senator to give birth during her term.

“The traditional elected official is older and white and male,” Sinzdak said. “We still have a long way to go. But the idea that you have to fit this mold, that you should in some way try to contort yourself to fit what the traditional elected official looks like, well, that playbook is out the window.”

Simmons, 35, is the first woman to serve as mayor of Stamford.

Campaigning while pregnant “helps normalize” mothers in politics and sends an important signal to younger women, said Simmons, who served as a state representative from Stamford since 2015. “We can show that you don’t have to wait and this is possible with young kids.”

Yet leaning into motherhood still poses political risks. Stewart said she sometimes had to skip a campaign event because she needed to be with her daughter. “I was criticized for it, but I think most people understood why and appreciated the fact that family is important,” she said. “My husband is a great partner, but it’s tough when you’re the mayor. You have a lot of demands on your time.”

Studies have shown that mothers serving in office tend to back policies that support families. That’s true regardless of political affiliation.

“It’s not just nice to have moms serving. It’s necessary,” said Liuba Grechen Shirley, a former congressional candidate from New York who launched both the Vote Mama Foundation and the Vote Mama PAC, which trains and supports Democratic women running for office, from school board to U.S. Senate.

“Our policies have been failing women and children for generations, and frankly, it’s because we don’t have enough moms in office at all levels of government,” Grechen Shirley said.

As a candidate, Grechen Shirley said she would sometimes encounter voters dismissing funding for child care and paid family leave as “women’s issues.”

That, she said, “would infuriate me. Child care and paid leave are two of the most basic economic issues this country faces, and far too long, people have written them off as ‘women’s issues.’ Having moms in office makes a massive difference in what policies are being prioritized.”

Stewart said her own experience as a new mom bolstered her support of paid leave. (Connecticut’s paid leave program, which will begin in 2022, entitles employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave for individual or family health matters.)

Simmons notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the child care crisis facing many families. She says that one in four women has left the workforce, and insufficient child care is one of the top reasons.

Simmons and her husband, former state Sen. Art Linares, rely on family members to help out with child care. Their oldest son attends a preschool program.

“I recognize that I am incredibly blessed to have a support network in place,” she said. “That not all families have.”

Simmons said she has always supported strengthening the child care system to ensure for quality, affordable care.

“Becoming a mom has only increased my appreciation for how much parents go through,” she said. “It brings a sense of urgency to wanting to make the world a better place.”

This story has been updated to note that the Vote Mama Foundation tracks the number of mothers of young children serving in political office. An earlier version of the story said those numbers were not available.

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