Although Nantucket’s population has become increasingly diverse year-round, Nantucket’s town government is predominantly white and male. Across all elected and appointed boards, committees, commissions, councils and trustees, 57 percent of town officials are male and 97 percent are white. While there are some signs that diversity in local government is increasing, progress is slow, and the problem – that people in positions of power on Nantucket do not reflect the island’s diverse population – eludes easy solutions.

“Do I want to see more people who look like me (in local government)?” asked former school board member Anthony “Rocky” Fox, who still serves on several smaller city boards. “Of course. But…” he sighed.

But it doesn’t seem to be happening.

If you focus only on the island’s major government bodies, the overall picture changes little. Of all the people who hold a seat on the Select Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Commission, School Board, Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission, Historic District Commission, Health Board, or Finance Board, 58 percent are male and 97 percent are white.

It’s not just that city government lacks ethnic or gender diversity. Although it’s harder to quantify, elected and appointed positions also tend to be filled by older, more financially stable individuals. This was partly why Dawn Hill Holdgate, a member of the Select Board and former member of the Historic District Commission, first ran for office.

“I felt like I could be an additional voice. I saw a lot of people running for office who were at a stage of life where they were already retired and didn’t have the same perspective anymore,” she said. “I worry that what’s missing from the boards is the perspective of the people who actually have to make a living on Nantucket and support their families.”

Fox had a similar concern.

“It was because Zona Butler resigned and I thought it would be nice to have someone on the school board who looked like me,” Fox said.

When he decided to leave the committee, he sought another black candidate to replace him, hoping it would not be all white. Given that the district now serves more non-white students than white students—the largest demographic group in Nantucket Public Schools is now Hispanic students, making up 43.4 percent of the student body—an all-white school committee would be highly unrepresentative—but it would not be the only demographically skewed committee.

According to official census data, just over 71 percent of Nantucket residents are white, which is far below the 97 percent of the town’s government officials. And the census numbers likely underestimate the island’s non-white population. Despite making up over a quarter – and probably 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 these positions are typically unpaid and therefore out of reach for many members of the working class. However, not everyone agrees that this is an important factor.

“I’m not sure it’s a question of money,” Fox said. “I would say it’s a question of time.”

The same observation about representation in local government is typically made each spring when Nantucket’s legislative body – the annual Town Meeting – meets in Mary P. Walker Auditorium, where voters are overwhelmingly older, white and affluent.

The long working hours and lack of pay also make life harder for mothers of young children, especially working ones. As women are expected to take on more child-rearing responsibilities, they may have less free time to spend in unpaid government positions. The decision to participate in local government may come at a higher cost to them.

“I think it’s a little harder for women to feel like they can afford the extra time they have to work without compensation,” said Holdgate, who served as chair of the Select Board until the last election.

In a recent interview with the Investigators and Mirrors Following the May 2024 municipal election, Holdgate alleged that former Select Board member Rick Atherton pressured other Select Board members to vote against her for chair because she had children. Atherton denied the allegations.

Whether or not they’re truthful, they point to a real problem faced by many women who run for local government: stereotypes remain a dominant force in politics, helping white men win competitive elections and making them feel more entitled to run in the first place.

“You definitely feel more comfortable and accepted,” Holdage said. “It’s definitely intimidating.” Holdgate added that being a working mother “definitely felt like a barrier” when she first joined the then-all-male Select Board.

Some high-profile cases in recent years have drawn attention to the lack of women and racial minorities in town government. 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 hate crime aftermath were white. On the other hand, Nantucket is making some progress in increasing diversity in local government, particularly gender diversity.

“We’ve definitely pushed for that. We have more women in different offices and we have more diversity overall,” Holdgate said. “People have seen more age diversity and more gender diversity.”

In a recent letter, Planning Board Vice Chair Abby De Molina wrote that she was not concerned about the continuing gender gap in local politics, pointing to the many women in positions of power on Nantucket, including the police chief, the superintendent of public schools, the town manager and the chair of the finance committee.

“I think that’s a cause for celebration; the fact that we have so many amazing women working in so many fields across Nantucket. Our representation is something many towns in the Commonwealth can only dream of,” she wrote. “The most important thing in advancing women’s rights and representation, again, is access. We want to continue to ensure that the most qualified person is put in every position… we shouldn’t select someone because they’re a woman, we should select them in spite of that.”

While De Molina is correct about staffing in the town government, the situation is different when it comes to Nantucket’s elected and appointed boards, committees and commissions.

In 2021, Esmeralda Martinez became the first Hispanic woman elected to a town board when she won a seat on the school board, which she successfully defended this spring. When Fox left the board, Martinez was joined by another woman of color, Shantaw Bloise-Murphy. This is almost certainly the first time that multiple women of color have held seats simultaneously on a Nantucket elected board. Yet in the 2024 municipal election, only two candidates were nonwhite, Martinez and Community Preservation Committee member Neville Richen, and barely a third were women.

Nantucket’s lack of diversity in government positions is far from unique. At every level, from local to national, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented. While the majority of Massachusetts’ top politicians, including Governor Maura Healey, are women, over two-thirds of the state legislature and more than 60 percent of the state’s congressional delegation are male. Similar numbers exist across the country.

Although the problem of unrepresentative government bodies is a problem that exists across the country, solutions are not yet in sight. Even if racism and sexism were not a factor, candidates would first have to be persuaded to stand for election. This is a difficult task given the responsibilities and time involved, as well as the lack of remuneration.

“There could be more diversity if compensation on the Select Board and (perhaps other boards) was better,” Holdgate said.

But for many voters, paying local officials is not a compelling proposition because the money would have to come from their tax dollars, which would likely require a tax increase. It would also break with long-standing island tradition of expecting officials to serve for altruistic reasons rather than for pay.

“Volunteers don’t necessarily have the time, they have the heart,” Fox quoted author Elizabeth Andrews as saying.

Even if the positions were compensated, new candidates would have to overcome the enormous incumbency advantage that benefits incumbent officials. In the last local elections, not a single incumbent lost, and this advantage also extends to the often highly experienced and qualified appointed officials.

“It’s hard for people to overcome the hurdle of incumbents,” Holdgate said.

The Select Board has tried to increase diversity in elected and appointed positions, she said, largely through information campaigns. “We’ve tried to get the word out … we have so many different people on Nantucket who can share their experiences.”

The numbers in this article were calculated through a thorough review of the listed memberships of all relevant boards. The city’s website was deemed to contain a complete and accurate record of membership of all qualified boards, with the exception of the School Board, which was examined separately. City labor groups were not counted because they are typically temporary boards, but alternates of other groups were counted because they typically play an important role in the governing process. Individuals who served on multiple boards were counted only once, and boards that did not meet during the current calendar year were considered inactive and were not counted. Because vacancies are constantly being created and filled, exact numbers may quickly become out of date, but general trends are likely to persist for the foreseeable future. The data was compiled before the second round of annual Select Board appointments in late August 2024, which may have changed the exact percentages slightly but probably did not have a major impact.