With Manhattan still cloaked in early-morning darkness, New York City’s new sanitation commissioner stepped into a semicircle of 40 men holding brooms and dustpans as they finished roll call and prepared to clean the streets of the Village. They wore neon yellow and orange vests. She wore black high-heeled boots. Uniformed women didn’t break the department’s gender barrier until 1986, and still make up just 200 of the 6,000 members of what is still called the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association. But Kathryn Garcia, the city’s second female sanitation commissioner, is anything but outnumbered at City Hall.

There, she is part of an administration where women hold more than half of the highest-ranking jobs. Two deputy mayors are women, as are two dozen commissioners and directors, including Polly Trottenberg at the Department of Transportation; Meera Joshi, of the Taxi & Limousine Commission; Vicki L. Been of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development; and Shola Olatoye, who runs the New York City Housing Authority.

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