Page Reader AI | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has a trusty sidekick: her baby Mira

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has a trusty sidekick: her baby Mira

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's decision to bring her baby, Mira, to work challenges societal expectations of women in politics and normalizes the realities of working motherhood.

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Wu broke barriers as the first woman and person of color elected to lead City Hall and shattered another this year when she became the first Boston mayor to give birth while in office, joining a small but growing cadre of women politicians to do so. She declined to take maternity leave — a benefit she fought to make available to nearly all city employees — pointing to the unique responsibilities of her job, and the privilege, resources, and flexibility she has that make it possible for her to lead the city with a newborn.

Her approach has taken that well-worn political cliche — politician kisses baby — and flipped it on its head. Now, it’s the politician with the baby everyone wants to snuggle.

At community events, City Hall staff meetings, senior centers, and campaign stops, more often than not Mira is there in Wu’s arms. At a mere seven-weeks old, Mira even made a splash on the national stage, when photographers captured photos of Wu breastfeeding her under a pink fabric nursing cover, minutes before Wu testified before a Republican-led Congressional committee on Capitol Hill in March.

It’s another example of how Wu, who is running for reelection this year and will formally launch her campaign Saturday, is challenging the once-dominant expectation that women in politics hide their motherhood and related responsibilities.

At a recent senior-focused St. Patrick’s Day celebration in South Boston, Mira, clad in a shamrock-covered onesie with green ruffles on the shoulders, was a hit with the crowd.

Wu, herself on theme in green, was there to greet around 100 senior residents who were enjoying the party’s live music, food, and raffle contest.

“Big round of applause for our great mayor, Mayor Michelle Wu, and a big round of applause for baby Mira,” the emcee said into a microphone, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. “Baby Mira, welcome to the world!”

Wu, holding Mira, went table to table to speak to residents as senior after senior fawned and cooed over the baby. They snapped photos, some took turns holding her, and at least one presented the sleeping baby with a gift. (Wu’s chief rival, Josh Kraft, was there, too, but his two daughters are grown and flown.)

“Oh my god, she’s adorable, very cute,” said Christine Corbitt, a 55-year-old Braintree resident who was enjoying the party with her elderly mother. “What a great baby!”

It’s not unusual for political candidates to interact with babies while in public, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics in New Jersey.

It’s a way “they show their humanity, they show their empathy,” which can go over well with constituents, Dittmar said.

But when candidates have brought their own children on the campaign trail, male and female politicians have historically elicited very different reactions, due to gendered stereotypes and unequal standards for motherhood versus fatherhood, Dittmar said.

She pointed to the 2008 presidential election, in which Republican then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drew immediate criticism for bringing her infant son on the trail with her, even though her husband was there, visibly caring for the child. At the same time, the public responded very differently to then-Senator John Edwards, who campaigned with his wife and young children as he sought the Democratic Party’s nomination for president that same year, Dittmar said.

Expectations and cultural norms for mothers and working parents have certainly changed in recent years, Dittmar said, but seeing an elected official as prominent as the mayor of Boston taking their newborn to work is still uncommon.

Although Wu surely has personal and logistical reasons for doing so, she added, Wu’s also setting an example that helps normalize the many realities of being a working mother.

“We see women using their identity and experiences ... as an electoral asset instead of a hurdle to overcome,” said Dittmar. “New mothers are pushing institutions to change and the expectations to change, and to me, that’s a good thing.”

That example appears to resonate with many women.

It was on display again recently, when hundreds gave Wu a standing ovation as she took the stage, holding Mira, at Boston Globe Media’s Working Mothers Summit in March.

Phones outstretched to capture pictures of the duo, the crowd let out a collective “aww” as Mira released a big yawn.

Wu’s husband Conor Pewarski usually takes Mira when Wu has to be in front of an audience, Wu said, but “there really wasn’t much choice today”: He was taking their two boys, Blaise and Cass, to their annual doctors appointments, where Wu would meet them later.

Parenting so publicly is not new for Wu. She had both her sons while serving on the City Council. At the time, she and her husband were both working, and City Hall day care didn’t accept babies until they reached around four to six months old. So she took them to work with her, even breastfeeding on the council chamber floor.

“Some of it was an intentional, conscious decision, and some of it, as is so much of the lifestyle of working parents, is just, you’re going to do what you have to do,” Wu said at the Globe event. And Mira started to fuss, Wu paused briefly to to drape a nursing cover over her daughter.

“It’s not always fun in every minute, especially when they’re young,” she said. “But I know that it gives me this unshakable determination that we are going to make it easier for families everywhere to thrive and to have what they need.”