In all of California, there is only one all-female city council

Everywhere in Blue Lake, a tiny Humboldt County town nestled between redwood ridges on the Mad River, people had the same reaction when told theirs is the only all-female city council California.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” said Kate Martin, a Brooklyn native and owner of the town’s principal watering hole, the Logger Bar, which has eight vintage chain saws suspended from the ceiling. “I never really thought about that.”

“Woo-hoo,” said Lynne Owens, office manager of Blue Lake’s world-famous Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, which draws students from as far away as Zimbabwe, Greece, India and Israel.

“Hey, that’s great,” said Dell’Arte’s founding artistic director, Joan Schirle, leaning over the balcony of her loft office in the school’s surprisingly expansive building, which has a 116-seat theater with walls made of old-growth redwood planks.

“I am ecstatic to have an all-woman council in this time and age,” said Blue Lake Councilwoman Summer Daugherty, a project coordinator for the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, which, among other things, helps dairies stay on the right side of environmental regulations. Last year, Daugherty was elected to a four-year council term, her first. “We’re excited and motivated.”

California has 482 cities. Only 72 of them have a majority of women on their councils, according to California Women Lead, a nonpartisan group dedicated to increasing the number of elected and appointed female public officials. Fifty-six have no councilwomen at all.

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