As stated within my goals for the current year, embracing diversity within our organizations is important for purposes of building communities and professional talent for the future. One significant consideration for diversity, in my opinion, is that we embrace opportunities to foster women within our profession. I say that not only because I am one, but because women are underrepresented professionally not only based on gender, but also by other equity categories, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and generation.
Within FCCMA, women represent only 30% of our membership. ICMA has documented similar statistics among our national membership. In 2012, ICMA appointed a task force to provide specific recommendations on the challenges of women within the profession. That task force will be presenting its final report to the ICMA Executive Board in Charlotte next month. As we await those recommendations, I share with you the next article, which highlights a women’s leadership mentoring program initiated by the City of San Antonio, Texas. This program is an excellent example of practices we may all consider to develop women leaders within our own organizations.
