Fulton County’s female mayors hope to form ‘supportive sisterhood’
As a woman running for South Fulton City Council more than eight years ago, Carmalitha Gumbs remembers some people remarking that she was little more than a pretty face.
“Most people don’t even know that I have two master’s degrees,” said the self-described “girly girl.” She added some people make sexist comments about female politicians “if your skirt was too short, or if you put too much makeup on, or if you have eyelashes.”
Such scrutiny was amplified when Gumbs ran for mayor last year after two terms on the council, she said. Some people, both men and women, said they wouldn’t vote for her because she is unmarried.
Gumbs, who is no longer married and raised a daughter as a single mother, said she tried not to react to comments like those and instead focused the campaign on highlighting her experience as a public servant and marketing professional.
On Monday, Gumbs was sworn in as South Fulton’s first female mayor after winning a contest against eight other candidates — seven of whom were men.
“That’s what I want women to really do is truly embrace who they are and not really let these people kind of put you in a box either,” Gumbs said in an interview. “You can be pretty and smart and dress very nicely and still be able to be a CEO, a mayor or whatever the case may be. You’ve just got to make sure that you’re confident in who you are.”
For the first time this new year, seven of the 15 cities in Fulton County are being led by mayors who are women, including five women of color. Previously, the highest number of women serving as mayors in Fulton at the same time was five, starting in the early 2020s.
Like Fulton, DeKalb County will have seven women serving as mayors this year, though it had the same number before 2026.
Nationwide, fewer than 27% of people who perform mayoral duties in communities with populations of more than 30,000 were women as of May 2024, according to research by the Center for American Women and Politics.
College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom, president of the Georgia Municipal Association, said she already has reached out to several of the incoming mayors.
“We’re hoping we can all get together soon, just to connect and to have an opportunity to provide support to one another,” said Motley Broom, who has been College Park’s mayor since 2020 and also is a board member of the National League of Cities.
Motley Broom said a support network is important because female mayors face societal pressure to be less outspoken than their male colleagues, along with other hurdles.
“Sometimes we’re expected to not assert ourselves and not speak ‘out of turn,’ but if we’ve been elected to represent our communities, we belong in the rooms that we’re in, and our voices are just as valuable,” Motley Broom said in an interview. “So I look forward to being able to support my fellow mayors in their advocacy efforts for their communities.”
In Fulton, four of the five newly elected female mayors are replacing men. In Fairburn, for example, Hattie Portis-Jones beat James Whitmore to succeed former mayor Mario Avery.
Gumbs replaced khalid “Kobi” kamau, who was the subject of intense criticism over his spending of taxpayer dollars and international travel.
Like Gumbs, Chattahoochee Hills Mayor Camille Lowe is the first woman to serve as mayor of her city. Lowe trounced fellow councilman Richard “Richie” Schmidt after he generated community furor by making recorded threats about a female city contractor.
New Roswell Mayor Mary Robichaux’s victory came in a campaign season punctuated by some loud voices of dissatisfaction with her predecessor, Kurt Wilson.
Robichaux, a former Georgia state representative who was sworn in as Roswell’s mayor on Monday, said she does not think of her victory over Wilson as “male-versus-female.”
“I just think, for me, my campaign — I felt it was about becoming one Roswell,” she said in an interview last week, noting she is not the first woman elected mayor of Roswell.
In interviews, Robichaux and several of the other women said they would like to meet and talk about how to support one another, and work together when possible. Several also said their messages of collaboration and listening to constituents resonated with voters.
“The women that I have met are very huge advocates for partnership and building strong community relationships, I can tell,” Lowe said of the other mayors. “I can tell that their perspective is about collaboration and working together.”
Keisha Chapman, a newcomer to elected office, won a runoff to become mayor of East Point after running against three men to replace Deana Holiday Ingraham. Chapman already has connected with Gumbs. They both attended Norfolk State University and have worked in marketing.
“I think that it’s a great point in history where we’re seeing women being put in positions,” Chapman said in an interview. “I come from corporate, and so there weren’t a lot of females necessarily in leadership.
“I think that we just bring another attitude, another type of vibe and energy to leadership,” she added. “And I think that it’s time that we acknowledge and celebrate what females bring to the table and support that.”
Palmetto Mayor Teresa Thomas-Smith said she hopes a “supportive sisterhood” will form among the seven mayors that will include mentoring of those who are new to the role.
“We’ve lived in a society that has been very patriarchal for our lifetime,” she said. “The men have been in leadership and women have been supportive. And now we see that women are moving into leadership in some of the highest places, and we’re getting the work done.”
About the Author
Reed Williams is an enterprise reporter on the Local team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
