L-R Councilor Ayanna Pressley, Annissa Essaibi-George, and Councilor Michelle Wu address a women's network at First Parish Church in Dorchester.

Education and advocacy took top priority in a meeting of the All Dorchester Women’s Professional Network on Thursday night, at which at-large city councillors Ayanna Pressley and Michelle Wu joined sole challenger Annissa Essaibi-George to make their cases five days before Bostonians would take to the polls.

Though all three were running on a tight schedule so close to the election, they introduced themselves and highlighted priority issues before fielding questions on their backgrounds and approaches to several city crises. They, along with councillors Michael Flaherty and Stephen Murphy, hope to claim one of the four at-large seats up for grabs on Nov. 3.

Seeking her second term, Wu explained that her call to city government was an unexpected turn -- “Some days I still wake up and pinch myself that I’m serving as city councillor” -- but one informed by experiences including raising her two younger sisters at the age of 22 after their mother fell unexpectedly ill.

“I’ve seen first hand how much government matters, especially on a city level,” she said, “and also how frustrating it can be for most people to navigate through often very painful bureaucracy.”

Raising her sisters, caring for her mother, and managing a family business “or trying to get it open” highlighted the impact of local government as a force for positive change when it works effectively. It touched the public schools her sisters hoped to enter, the access to health care her mother needed, the availability of immigrant resources for those who did not speak fluent English.

The struggles of making a home in Boston, limited by affordability concerns and available housing stock, require a proactive and innovative approach, Wu said.

Dorchester native Essaibi-George, who owns Stitch House, said that though she has seen much of the affordability concerns from a Dorchester angle, a similar pattern has emerged across the city when it comes to balancing the needs of condo or homeowners and rental tenants.

Three-term councillor Pressley pointed out that 60 percent of Bostonians are renters, and it is problematic to treat homeowners “as though they have a greater stake in the community, and that’s just not true.”

Many live in unsafe and unclean facilities, Pressley said, and are worried that reporting those conditions will leave them with no place to live. This dovetailed with Wu’s assertion that additional resources and coordination need to be dedicated toward the city’s homeless population.

Still a somewhat frustrating topic for sitting councillors, the issue of work hours and the pay raise were handled by Pressley. As she maintains a 60- to 80-hour-week work schedule, “this is an all-consuming endeavor,” she said. What matters more than hours worked, she said however, is the impact that councillors try to have on their communities and individuals, a difficult thing to quantify.

The forum segued into education, a well-trod topic for each of the candidates.

A former BPS teacher and coach, Essaibi-George cited Sister Helen Cushing from her grammar school, then the St. Margaret school, as one of the public female figures to have a significant impact on her. Schools are not receiving enough support, she said, particularly in the areas of mental health resources for the children.

Pressley last week conducted an extensive hearing as part of her advocacy for trauma victims, an issue is relieved is now receiving acknowledgement as a matter of importance. “A traumatized child can’t learn,” she said. “We’re vilifying teachers because they are not social workers; they’re not supposed to be.”

All three have spoken against raising the charter cap. Wu elaborated that she knows the value of strong public education systems, and BPS has many strong components, but more needs to be done to equitably support children across neighborhoods. “Families should want to move to Boston for of the schools, not move them out of Boston Public Schools,” she said.

The three women were collegial and patient as their co-panelists responded to questions, and their answers balanced time-constrained but substantive comments with humorous touches. “Can you tell how much fun we’ll have?” Essaibi-George asked between questions, to laughs.

Andrea Campbell, who is challenging 32-year incumbent Charles Yancey for his District 4 seat, had a scheduling conflict and was not able to attend, but did receive a shout-out from organizers.