Mayor Eric Adams dismissed concerns about his support for female leaders in New York City’s emergency services departments, bristling at suggestions that sexism played a role in the sudden departure of the first woman commissioner of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), Laura Kavanagh.
During his weekly news conference, Adams was asked whether he believed he had given sufficient support to Kavanagh and former Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who were both the first women to lead their respective departments. He responded by pointing out that when a man leaves a position, it is not seen as an issue of inadequate support, whereas women are frequently subjected to such scrutiny.
Kavanagh’s exit followed numerous conflicts with male underlings and her failure to “fix” sexist men within her department, according to an exclusive report by The Post. Despite this, Kavanagh has not cited these issues as the reason for her departure in a Medium post published on Tuesday. Instead, she stated that she had been grappling with the decision to leave the FDNY due to the demanding nature of the job and her desire to spend time with family and friends.
Mayor Adams and City Hall officials have maintained that Kavanagh could remain in her position for as long as she wanted. Sources told The Post that Adams would like to keep Kavanagh within his administration, a possibility he appeared to confirm during the news conference. When she’s ready to transition to her next role then she will come in and say, ‘Eric I’m ready to transition to my next role.’ If that’s outside the administration or inside the administration, that’s fine with me,” Adams said.
As for potential replacements for Kavanagh, sources informed The Post that two rumored candidates are both men. Mayor Adams acknowledged that while his administration is working to address and eliminate various forms of prejudice, it will not be an overnight process. Those ‘isms’ that existed for thousands of years won’t dissipate under my administration,” he said. I’m setting the right tone that we don’t accept those isms to exist, and we use our internal mechanisms to correct them.
