| Janet Gray Hayes | |
| Office: | Mayor of San Jose, California |
| Term Start: | January 9, 1975 |
| Term End: | January 9, 1983 |
| Predecessor: | Norman Mineta |
| Successor: | Tom McEnery |
| Office1: | Vice Mayor of San Jose |
| Term Start1: | 1973 |
| Term End1: | 1974 |
| Office2: | San Jose City Councilor[1] |
| Term Start2: | 1971 |
| Term End2: | 1974 |
| Birth Date: | 12 July 1926 |
| Birth Place: | Rushville, Indiana, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Saratoga, California, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Alma Mater: | Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice |
| Education: | Indiana State University |
| Order: | 60th |
Janet Gray Hayes (July 12, 1926 – April 21, 2014) was the 60th mayor of San Jose, California, elected to two consecutive, four-year terms from 1975 to 1983. She was both the first woman to be elected mayor San Jose, and the first woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city with a population of more than 500,000 people.[2] [3]
Born in Rushville, Indiana, Hayes went to University of Chicago and then received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University.[4] In 1956, Hayes and her husband moved to San Jose, California where her husband practiced medicine.
Hayes was elected to the San Jose City Council in 1971[5] In 1973, she was voted by the city council to serve as the city's vice mayor, becoming the first woman to hold that position.[6] In 1974, she was elected mayor of the city. She was reelected in 1978. She was a Democrat and campaigned as an environmentalist and wanted to fight Urban sprawl in San Jose.
She died of a stroke on April 26, 2014, in Saratoga, California.[3]