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It's a minor mystery, and lots of people have their own ideas as to why it may have become a downright phenomenon.

Female town clerks dominate throughout the state, and many of them are unsure why. There are 932 town clerks throughout the state - and only 28 of them are men.

"It is a little curious, especially in this day and age," Mohawk Town Clerk Kimberly Sullivan said.

The high number of female clerks represents a marked change from the earlier part of the century, when most town clerks were male.

Fulton County Historian Peter Betz said it was around the 1950s when female town clerks began to pop up with more regularity. The first female Perth town clerk, he said, took the job slightly later than that-in 1968-but the shift, for the most part, happened after World War II.

"In those times, men served in those positions and, of course, women were expected to be home cooking gruel for supper," he said. "In the last 30 to 40 years, it's been different."

But with the prevalence of female clerks today, it's easy to think they were always dominant.

"Oh gosh," said Somerset, Niagara County town clerk Rebecca Connolly, when told about the 1950s shift. "I didn't know that."

Connolly is the past president of the state Town Clerks Association. Without looking through notes, she is able to name several male town clerks from various places around the state-there's David Carlucci in Clarkstown, Rockland County; Michael Zimmer in Owego, Tioga County and David Shenk in Boston, Erie County.

So Connolly is knowledgeable about male clerks. The last 20 years, she said, have also represented a marked shift in town clerk involvement.

"It's becoming more where there's men involved," she said.

In the early 1980s, for example, there were very few men who took part in clerk-related activities, but the number has increased since then.

Fultonville Village Clerk Tom DiMezza is the only male municipal clerk in the area.

But DiMezza said he was only hired to get village finances in order. His wife, Kathleen DiMezza, is the deputy clerk and does a lot of village clerk work as well.

He said because of the shared role, he is not necessarily one of the more involved municipal clerks.

"I don't go to any of the regional meetings or anything," he said.

Gloversville used to have a male clerk. Former City Clerk Gary Margiotta was escorted from City Hall in 2006 by a police officer and was not reappointed by the Common Council soon afterward. He recently reached a settlement agreement with the city as part of a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Margiotta is now the deputy clerk in the village of Avon in Livingston County.

Many clerks seemingly know everything about their municipality, and are often the first source of communication a resident has with municipal officials.

"If the person that wants the job has been in the town a long time and knows people well, it has more of a tendency to be a woman than a man," Betz said.

He said the current Perth town clerk, Judy English, is well suited for the job. Betz serves on the Perth town board.

"She knows who beats their wives and which wives beat their husbands and that kind of thing," he said. "Those are the kind of people who get these jobs."

Betz noted the job is part-time, but is very important.

Sullivan said she is pleased that the part-time nature of the job allows her to do things she would not be able to do otherwise, like cook dinners at home and do laundry.

Her husband works several jobs-he is a transportation supervisor and drives a truck for Target.

"It would be interesting if the roles were reversed," he said.

She said it is possible that traditional gender roles have an effect on who runs for town clerk.

"I don't know if it's a pay thing, because it is a part time position," Sullivan said, though she noted that women are "taking the big jobs too."

No matter the reason for the predominance of females, many town clerks say they love their jobs. In essence, they coordinate a community's operations.

"I meet almost every single resident in town at one point in the year, sometimes through taxes or permits or certain licenses that they need, and you know, it's interesting," Caroga Town Clerk Linda Gilbert said.

Zach Subar covers rural Fulton County news. He can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.