After nearly a decade on the Tampa City Council, Sandra Freedman became the first woman to chair it in 1983.
Three years later, she became the first female mayor of Tampa until 1995.
Freedman said it was very unusual to see women in politics when she first started in the 1970s. Some of her friends even thought her initial run for council was "crazy."
"My parents didn't think it was crazy. They knew that I had always had the interest. I probably was the youngest person to ever have a Newsweek subscription when I was 9 years old,” Freedman said.
WUSF spoke to Freedman as part of a series highlighting important people in the community during Women’s History Month.
The following is an edited transcript of that interview, in which Freedman describes her time in local government.
Diversifying public and private sectors
Well, I was generally the only woman in the room most of the time. I tried to change that over time, and we did within city government, and I raised a little hell sometimes with the private sector for not having more women.
I can recall when the Bucs were being sold (after owner Hugh Culverhouse's death) ... and the Chamber of Commerce formed a committee to help keep the Bucs here in town.
There wasn't any diversity on the committee, and I called them up and said, 'You need to have a committee that reflects the whole community, that is going to prove to the community that we can support the Bucs in every way and everything.’
They balked: 'Well, we don't know any women who are interested in sports and that kind of thing.' And the same was true of African Americans, I might add.
Eventually, I had to play a little hardball. I said, 'Well, if you don't, I'm going to talk to the newspaper and say that we should have that, then you're going to be embarrassed.' And so, they did, and we were better for it.
Getting along and building community
Anybody can do it, if they think about it, if they're interested in really helping people. That's the part I miss about the job. I would have stayed forever if we didn't have term limits, and if the public had wanted me to because you just can build on those experiences and keep them going.
And sometimes I'm saddened that I don't see as much community building as I would like to see, but I'm delighted that those programs have continued to work, and I'm delighted that we have a more diverse community and that maybe I played a little bit of a part in it.
My kids appreciate it, they know, but everybody has different ideas when they come into office of what they want to do.
And I just hope people will think about what really matters at the end of the day is whether people can get along and that sense of community still exists, or we get so big and we get so tied up with the development and the traffic and all the other things that we overlook those things.
So, I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I wasn't 81 years old.
More minorities needed in government
I hope more women and other minorities will get back into government. There are fewer and fewer, because it can take a real strain on your family life.
It's much more difficult for your family, actually, when (others) say bad things about you. … After a while, you can slough it off, but your family doesn't. They take it to heart.
It was a great experience for my kids. They are all – and my grandkids actually are all –great citizens and know a great deal more about government – because they've experienced it with me – than they might have otherwise.
But I certainly hope that there will be more women, in particular, especially with Women's History Month, and perhaps some of the pushback against women being in various fields today. I hope more will enter and not be afraid. Just dig deep.
