Despite A Diversifying Year-Round Population, Nantucket's Town Government Remains Highly Unrepresentative

Despite a year-round population that has grown increasingly diverse over the past two decades, Nantucket’s municipal government is overwhelmingly white and male. Across all elected and appointed boards, committees, commissions, councils, and trusts, 57 percent of town officials are male and 97 percent are white. Although there is some evidence that diversity in local government is improving, progress remains slow, and the problem - that the people in positions of power on Nantucket do not reflect the island’s diverse population - evades simple solutions.

“Would I like to see more people who look like me [in local government]?” asked former School Committee member Anthony ‘Rocky’ Fox, who still serves on several smaller town bodies. “Of course. But…” he trailed off in a sigh.

But it doesn’t seem to be happening.

Focusing just on the island’s most significant governmental bodies does little to change the overall picture. Out of all individuals holding a seat on the Select Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Commission, School Committee, Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission, Historic District Commission, Board of Health or Finance Committee, 58 percent are male and 97 percent are white.

The town’s government is not just lacking in racial or gender diversity. Though it’s more difficult to quantify, elected and appointed positions also tend to be held by older, more financially stable individuals. This was, in part, what motivated Select Board member and former Historic District Commission member Dawn Hill Holdgate to first run for office.

“I felt like I could be an added voice. I saw a lot of people running for office were at a stage in their lives where they were retired and didn't quite have the same perspective,” she said. “I worry that there is a lack of perspective brought to boards of people who actually need to make a living on Nantucket and support their families.”

A similar worry motivated Fox.

“It was because Zona Butler resigned her term and I thought it would be nice to have someone who looked like me on [the School Committee],” Fox said.

When he chose to leave the committee, he sought out another Black candidate to replace him, hoping to ensure it did not become entirely white. Given that the district now educates more non-white students than white students - the largest demographic group in Nantucket Public Schools is now Hispanic students at 43.4 percent of the student body - an entirely white School Committee would be highly unrepresentative—but it wouldn’t be the only demographically skewed committee.

According to official census data, slightly over 71 percent of Nantucket is white, far lower than the 97 percent of the Town’s governmental bodies. And the census figures likely undercount the island’s non-white population. Despite making up over one-fourth - and likely more - of the island’s population, there are vanishingly few non-white Nantucket residents in government positions.

One possible reason for this discrepancy is that such positions are broadly uncompensated and thus inaccessible to many working-class individuals, though not everyone agrees this is a major factor.

“I’m not sure if it’s a monetary issue,” Fox said. “I would like to say it’s a time commitment issue.”

That same observation regarding representation in local government is typically made each spring when Nantucket’s legislative body - the Annual Town Meeting - convenes at the Mary P. Walker Auditorium, where voters skew heavily toward being older, white, and wealthy.

The long hours and lack of payment also make things more difficult for mothers of young children, particularly working mothers. With women expected to take on more child-rearing duties, they may have less free time to spend serving on unpaid governmental bodies, and choosing to participate in local governance may have a higher cost for them.

“I think that it's a little bit harder for women to feel that they can make the extra time without compensation,” Holdgate, who served as Select Board chair until the most recent election, said.

In a recent interview with the Inquirer and Mirror after the May 2024 town election, Holdgate alleged that former Select Board member Rick Atherton urged fellow Select Board members to vote against her for chair because she had children. Atherton denied the allegations.

Regardless of their veracity, they point to a real problem facing many women interested in local governance: stereotypes remain a prevalent force in politics, propelling white men to victory in contested elections and making them feel more comfortable running in the first place.

“There's definitely a higher comfort level of feeling accepted,” Holdage said. “It’s definitely intimidating.” Holdgate added that being a working mother “definitely felt like a bit of a barrier” when she first joined the then-all-male Select Board.

A few high-profile cases in recent years have drawn attention to the lack of women and racial minorities in Town governance. In addition to Holdgate’s allegations, after the African American Meeting House was defaced with graffiti in a racist hate crime, all of the elected and appointed officials dealing with the aftermath of the hate crime were white. On the other hand, Nantucket is making some progress in increasing diversity in local government, particularly gender diversity.

“We've definitely made a push for that. We have more women in various offices and we have more diversity in general,” Holdgate said. “People have seen more age diversity and more gender diversity.”

In a recent letter, Planning Board alternate Abby De Molina wrote that she is not concerned by the remaining gender gap in local politics, highlighting the many women in positions of power on Nantucket, including the Chief of Police, Superintendent of the Public Schools, Town Manager, and Finance Committee chair.

“I think this is something to celebrate; the fact we have so many impressive women working in so many areas throughout Nantucket. Our representation is something many towns in the commonwealth can only dream about,” she wrote. “The most important thing about championing women's rights and representation is again, access. We still want to ensure the most qualified person is put in place for any position…we should not be choosing someone because they are a woman, we should choose them despite of it.”

While De Molina is correct regarding staff positions in town government, Nantucket’s elected and appointed boards, committees, and commissions are a different story.

In 2021, Esmeralda Martinez became the first Hispanic woman elected to a town body when she won a seat on the School Committee, which she successfully defended this spring. When Fox left the board, Martinez was joined by another woman of color, Shantaw Bloise-Murphy, almost certainly marking the first time an elected Nantucket board has seen multiple women of color hold seats simultaneously. Still, only two candidates in the 2024 local elections, Martinez and Community Preservation Committee member Neville Richen were non-white, and barely one-third were women.

Nantucket’s lack of diversity in government positions is far from unique. On every level, from local to national, women and racial minorities are under-represented. While the majority of Massachusetts’s top executives, including Governor Maura Healey, are women, over two-thirds of the state legislature and more than 60 percent of the state’s Congressional delegation is male. Similar figures are repeated across the country.

While the issue of non-representative governmental bodies is nationwide, solutions remain elusive. Even if racism and sexism were not in play, candidates would have to be convinced to put their names into contention in the first place, a difficult ask considering the duties and time required, coupled with the lack of compensation.

“There could be greater diversity if there was greater compensation on the Select Board and [any] compensation on other boards,” Holdgate said.

But paying local elected officials is not a compelling proposition for many voters, as the money would have to come out of their tax dollars, likely requiring a tax hike. It would also be a break with the longstanding island tradition of expecting officials to take their positions for altruistic reasons, not payment.

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time, they have the heart,” Fox said, quoting author Elizabeth Andrews.

Even if positions were compensated, new candidates would then have to overcome the enormous incumbency advantage that insulates sitting officials. In the most recent local elections, not a single incumbent lost, and the advantage extends to the often highly experienced and qualified appointed officials as well.

“It’s hard for people to get over the hump of the incumbents,” Holdgate said.

The Select Board has been trying to increase diversity in elected and appointed positions, she said, largely through informational campaigns. “We’ve been trying to just put the word out there in general…we have such a broad range of people on Nantucket who can share their experiences.”

The figures in this article were calculated by a thorough review of the listed membership of every relevant body. The town’s website was assumed to contain a full and accurate record of the membership of every qualifying body, save the School Committee, which was surveyed separately. Town work groups were not counted, as they are generally temporary bodies, but alternates to other groups were counted, as they tend to have substantial roles in the governing process. Individuals serving on multiple bodies were only counted once, and bodies that have not met in the current calendar year were deemed inactive and not counted. As vacancies are consistently being created and filled, the exact numbers may be outdated quickly, but the general trends will likely remain true for the foreseeable future. The data was compiled prior to the second round of the Select Board's annual appointments in late August 2024, which may have slightly altered the exact percentages but is unlikely to have had a major impact.