![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_0375ADc2025-12-18MayorEileenHiggins.JPG\" "\\"Miami")
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Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, left, is congratulated by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, President of Miami Dade College Madeline Pumariega, at top left, and former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, at top right, after Higgins\u2019 installation ceremony in Miami on Dec. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n
adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Miami has always been shaped by women who refused to accept the limits placed before them.<\/p>\n
Long before women had the constitutional right to vote, Julia Tuttle saw the potential of the land along Biscayne Bay and persuaded Henry Flagler to extend his railroad south, helping lay the groundwork for the city we know today. Known as the \u201cMother of Miami,\u201d Tuttle remains the only woman credited with founding a major American city.<\/p>\n
That history makes Aug. 26, Women\u2019s Equality Day, especially meaningful here.<\/p>\n
The day commemorates the certification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which prohibited denying Americans the right to vote on the basis of sex. It was a monumental victory, even as many women of color continued to face barriers to the ballot for decades afterward.<\/p>\n
Yet the women who fought for political equality wanted more than the ability to cast a ballot \u2014 they wanted a voice in the decisions shaping their lives. More than a century later, that work continues.<\/p>\n
Voting gives women the power to choose their leaders. Running for office gives women the opportunity to become them. And when women serve, they have a direct hand in shaping the future of their communities. We can see what that looks like right here in Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Daniella Levine Cava became the first woman elected mayor of Miami-Dade \u2014 but her leadership has always been about more than being first. After years as a social worker, attorney, advocate and county commissioner, she brought a lifetime of service to the county\u2019s highest elected office and showed women and girls across Miami-Dade that they belong at the very top of local government.<\/p>\n
Last December, Miami voters made history again, electing Eileen Higgins as the first woman to serve as mayor of the city of Miami. Higgins brought her own path to public service, from a career in engineering to the Peace Corps and U.S. Foreign Service to the Miami-Dade County Commission. Her election broke a barrier in a city women had spent generations helping build, but had never before been elected to lead.<\/p>\n
Those milestones matter. Not because representation is about checking a box or changing the portrait hanging on the wall at City or County Hall. It is about the kind of leadership women bring to government and the results they deliver for their communities.<\/p>\n
Mayors Levine Cava and Higgins have built their careers around bringing people together, finding common ground and, above all else, getting things done. At a time when political infighting too often stands in the way of progress, their leadership is a reminder that public service can still be about solving problems and delivering for the people you represent. And when women see other women leading effectively, it expands their own sense of what is possible.<\/p>\n
That is why equality cannot end with encouraging women to vote. We need women casting ballots, and putting their own names on them. We need more women stepping forward, shaping their communities and recognizing that leadership belongs to them, too.<\/p>\n
At Ruth\u2019s List Florida, we meet women every day who know exactly what they want to change in their communities. What they may not know yet is that they can be the ones to lead that change.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s Equality Day honors how far women have come, but it should also remind us how much further we can go. The women who fought for the 19th Amendment claimed their place in our democracy. Every woman who steps forward to lead builds on what they started.<\/p>\n
From Julia Tuttle to the women leading Miami today, women have never simply been part of Miami\u2019s story \u2014 they have helped write it. And we are nowhere near the final chapter.<\/p>\n
Christina Diamond is CEO of Ruth\u2019s List Florida, the state\u2019s only organization dedicated to recruiting, training and electing Democratic pro-choice women to state and local office.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published August 21, 2026 at 8:00 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, left, is congratulated by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, President of Miami Dade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-377515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}