By Kristen Krey, Grants Administrator - City of Glendale, AZ A few weeks ago I was at a retirement gathering for a close friend who had served for 20 years on our police force. As a former employee of the same police department there were many familiar faces at the event and some new employees [...]
By Tara Jaye Frank Over the last couple years, I’ve had a front row seat to career challenges women leaders face across industries, geographies, worldviews, cultures, experience levels, and generations. Certain issues strongly correlate with specific identifiers, while others are universal. Both observation and conversations have given me an interesting window into the minds and [...]
Male Bosses Need to Speak Up for Gender Balance When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked why he intentionately appointed a cabinet made up of an equal number of male and female members, he stated, "Because it's 2015." By Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, HBR.org Does anyone else find it strange that the debate heating up in the US around [...]
How Libraries and Police Departments are "Similar?" By Amber Cameron, Strategic Operations Manager - City of Palo Alto, CA Both experience something called Occupational Segregation... “Tell your grandfather about all the women’s stuff you’ve been working on,” my mom says at a holiday family get together. After briefly talking about the ICMA conference this year, [...]
By Sue McLaughlin, County Administrator - County of Bureau, IL Ok. I admit it. Back in the 80's, I used to wear those suits with the scarf bowties so that I could look professional in the working world thinking that would cover up my lack of confidence. And then as I grew older and more [...]
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt By Julie Underwood, Assistant City Manager - Daly City, CA By now, many of you know that there hasn’t been many of us in the #13percent club . And I’m making an educated guess that this number is even smaller for female [...]
"Let’s stop talking about a piecemeal public policy approach to a problem best addressed by a fully stocked policy toolkit." By Ayanna Pressley, At-Large Member, Boston City Council; Beth Monaghan, CEO, InkHouse PR; and Jesse Mermell, Executive Director, Alliance for Business Leadership Right policies needed to support [...]
ICMA Works to Advance Women in the Profession Reprinted from ICMA.org Photo: Women Leading Government - TX Chapter In September 2012, ICMA President-elect Bonnie Svrcek established a Task Force on Women in the Profession to evaluate the barriers facing women in the local government profession and to develop strategies to remove the barriers for those [...]
By Kathy Spillar, Executive Director, FMF (Parent group of National Center for Women & Policing) As the crisis continues to unfold in Baltimore and in communities across the country, it becomes increasingly clear that hiring the right types of police officers is imperative to improving police-community relations. In the Winter 2015 issue of Ms., I outlined why [...]
By Thomas I Miller, President - National Research Center, Inc. For generations, the pronoun for doctors and lawyers was “he.” In the last twenty years things changed. Most everyone would say “improved.” Recent statistics show that nearly half of all U.S. medical school graduates in 2014 were women and the same percentage applied to law [...]