In the 1970’s, San José was known as the “Feminist Capital of the Nation” in national publications. The first female mayor of any major US city with a population over 500,000 was San José Mayor, Janet Gray Hayes, who won office in 1974. (1) After her victory, many more women won powerful local positions. “Within two elections, eight of the 11 San Jose City Council members and three of the five Santa Clara County supervisors were women, as were the county executive and the president of San Jose State University.” (2)
Sources:
(1) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=lib_pub , 2020.
(2) https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/21/san-joses-first-female-mayor-janet-gray-hayes-has-died-at-87/ ,2020.