INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2024: INVESTING IN WOMEN
By Elizabeth Steward, Vice President Marketing & Research, Envisio
When I started the Inspirational Women in Local Government series four years ago, it stemmed from a desire to showcase women who were doing truly innovative and transformative work in local government.
I had three goals in mind:
· To CELEBRATE women doing innovative and transformative work in local government.
· To ELEVATE more women as role models in local government
· And to EDUCATE through exploration of individual professional and personal journeys.
It sounds wildly grandiose, I know. But I am a big believer in the importance of having more visible female role models in industries where women are underrepresented in leadership – including local government. Truthfully, my thoughts were nowhere near that organized and lofty in the beginning (inspiration for the series came to me in that well-known and respected ideation space… the shower). But four years of reflection and refinement have given me the clarity to better articulate what I was hoping to achieve.
It’s no secret that local government, as a sector, is struggling to reach gender parity at the highest levels of leadership. But in analyzing our own customer base at Envisio, it became clear that women are underrepresented in top city and county management roles and yet are driving a significant amount of the innovation work in local governments.
With that in mind, I wanted to learn from these amazing women and to give others the opportunity to share in those learnings. My goal was to shine a light on their work, explore their personal and professional journeys, and allow for an authentic conversation where others could recognize themselves in the experiences shared.
And so it was, from these humble (and soapy) beginnings, that the Inspirational Women in Local Government series was born in 2021. To see the first three years of the women we selected, and link back to the interviews, click here.
It had a simple premise: Four to five written conversations with women chosen for their transformative work in local government – either in organizational performance, through leading or developing innovative community programs, or inspirational people development.
They would take the form more of a conversation-over-tea than the formal lists of impressive accomplishments that usually accompany a more traditional award.
