When Peggy Merriss began her career in local government 40 years ago, there weren’t many women in leadership roles.
Merriss, who spent 25 years as the city manager of Decatur, Georgia, remembers being just the third female member of the Georgia City-County Management Association when she joined in 1984.
“They really didn’t know what to do with me,” says Merriss, who now serves as the organization’s executive director. “A number of years after that, when we actually had a line outside the ladies’ room, I was like, ‘We’ve made progress.’”
A lot has — and hasn’t — changed since then.
Thirteen of the nation’s governors are women — a record — as are nearly 27% of mayors in U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more. In 1974, women made up just 1% of city or county managers. Fifty years later, they now account for 23% of city and county managers and 45% of assistant and deputy managers, according to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
That’s significant progress. But those numbers suggest women, who account for 60% of the state and local government workforce, are still sorely underrepresented in leadership roles. That leadership gap has real implications for governance. To best serve the public, state and local governments ought to reflect it, many leaders say.
“We need everybody at the table to make real, equitable change,” says Rosina McNeil-Cusick, Colorado’s statewide equity director.
Building a better workplace for women isn’t just about supporting different groups. It’s an important way for governments to recruit and retain top employees, and to develop a strong pipeline of future leaders. With the right policies and strategies, agencies can create workplaces that work better for everyone.
Adobe Stock
Smarter Recruitment
Nearly a third of women in state and local government say gender biases and stereotypes have hindered their career advancement, according to a recent Governing/KPMG survey. And 28% of respondents said they’d been negatively impacted by traditional biases about a woman’s role. (See more survey research, p. 28.)
Those kinds of biases often start at the very beginning, with job postings and recruitment strategies that tilt toward male candidates. Job listings looking for “confident,” “ambitious,” “independent” or “driven” employees can be perceived as favoring male applicants, according to Monster.com, while postings with words like “agree,” “collaborate,” “interpersonal,” “commit” or “compassion” could be seen as female-coded.
Organizations can start by reviewing job descriptions, language and recruitment materials to ensure they are gender-neutral and don’t unintentionally reinforce gender stereotypes. Minnesota, for example, consciously develops “job postings and job descriptions that use inclusive, gender-neutral language that emphasizes our commitment to inclusion and diverse, lived experiences,” says Priscilla Stallings, the state’s chief inclusion officer. Minnesota also encourages hiring managers to conduct blind resume reviews to minimize unconscious bias during the initial job candidate screening.
It’s just as important for agencies to consider where they’re recruiting potential hires from. Job fairs and state job boards only attract applicants who are already looking to work in government. ICMA Director of Advocacy Jason Grant says it’s important to expand outreach to those who wouldn’t even consider applying. Churches and women-centered community and professional organizations can be ideal recruitment funnels. Agencies can also consider hosting recruitment events at women’s colleges or investing in ads or sponsorships at women’s athletic events and with local publications or media outlets that have a significant female audience.
“You’ve got to be intentional about reaching out to different places so that you’re recruiting the best talent from a diverse pool,” Grant says. “You’ve got to be where they are.”
Minnesota Office of Inclusion
SkillS-Based Hiring
In recent years, some agencies have reassessed long-held education requirements for new hires and have begun rolling out skills-based hiring initiatives. These changes don’t specifically target women, but they benefit them.
Massachusetts, for example, has instituted skills-based hiring to eliminate unnecessary education requirements and expand job opportunities throughout state government. The state, which has a female governor and lieutenant governor, is also implementing training for managers to help them embrace a skills-based strategy for recruitment, retention and workforce development.
“Opening the doors for everyone, including women, to feel supported and empowered in their jobs across the administration is incredibly important to us,” says Massachusetts Chief Diversity Officer Sandra Borders. “Women represent over 50% of our executive department’s workforce. They also represent 57.9% of our senior managers. That’s why we’ve made it a point to establish policies that support career growth, work-life balance and an environment where people feel empowered to reach their goals.”
Maryland has adopted skills-based hiring to expand beyond the traditional degree or experience requirements for more than half of its 38,000 roles. In 2022, Maryland became the first state in the country to eliminate the four-year college degree requirement for many state jobs. So far, the state has seen a 41% increase in hires without a degree and a 14% overall increase in the number of employees hired.
Colorado has taken a similar approach. Like Maryland, it implemented skills-based hiring in 2022.
“Pursuing a formal higher education is a privilege, and it’s not something that everybody gets to do,” McNeil-Cusick says, adding that the initiative is “to ensure that all skills that you acquire throughout your lifetime can be applicable to a position you’re pursuing.”
The initiative could benefit those with military service, people who have experience running a household, or even those who have worked in government for several years but don’t have a degree, McNeil-Cusick says. Colorado’s initiative essentially treats all this experience as equivalent to a degree.
“That job knowledge may be a little less formal, but it’s still very, very applicable to the job, which directly impacts women,” McNeil-Cusick says.
Welcoming Women Back to Work
Some states have focused on targeted outreach programs that engage women.
In 2021, Utah launched the nation’s first public sector return-to-work program. It helps individuals who have a skills or experience gap on their resume reenter the workforce in a mid-level state government role.
“A lot of what we’ve seen from that program has been centered around mothers who have left the workforce, either to be a stay-at-home mom or out of necessity, and they’re looking to come back into the workplace,” says Jennifer Jeppson, Salt Lake City’s recruitment and onboarding manager.
Jeppson says her city wants to work with the state to expand the program to include jobs in Salt Lake City government.
Adobe Stock
Pay Equity and Transparency
Salt Lake City is also focused on advancing pay equity for non-represented, or non-union, employees. Unlike with union employees — whose wages are based on time in the job — managers have discretion over the initial salaries and raises offered to non-represented employees, says David Salazar, the city’s compensation program manager.
The city established a pay equity policy in 2018 that prohibits managers from asking job applicants about their current salary or past salary history. “We didn’t want to perpetuate any pay inequities by relying on past pay history,” Salazar says.
Across all industries, according to data from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, women earn 76 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. ICMA research has found that many women in local government are paid less than men in the same roles, according to Laura Savage, ICMA’s senior program manager for equity and inclusion and staff lead for its SheLeadsGov initiative. Savage adds that pay discrepancies can vary widely among women based on their intersectional identities, including race, ethnicity, disability, culture or religious background.
One way to address the gender pay gap is through greater salary transparency. In 2024, Massachusetts became the latest state to pass a law requiring employers to disclose salary ranges when listing jobs. Ten other states have enacted similar legislation, including California, New York, Rhode Island and Washington. In most cases, the laws apply to state and local government agencies as well as private companies. These regulations help employees benchmark against their peers and reduce gender inequities in salary negotiations.
Flex Time
Maintaining work-life balance is a challenge that disproportionately impacts women. Many women juggle multiple responsibilities, including caring for children or aging relatives. Work-life imbalance remains a top source of stress for women, according to recent Gallup polling.
But ask Tanya Ange, the county administrator for Washington County, Oregon, about work-life balance, and she’s quick to reframe the issue.
“I’m a working mother with a 17- and 13-year-old. I’m balancing the need to raise thriving adults at the same time I’m working on creating thriving communities,” says Ange, who is also the current ICMA president. “There’s a tension there that I feel personally. I don’t believe in work-life ‘balance,’ because I have never found it.”
Instead, Ange says she thinks in terms of “work-life integration” — weaving together the time spent on her career and family in a way that enhances both her personal and professional lives.
Ange’s distinction represents an important shift in thinking about work-life balance: For women employees, flexibility of time may be more important than flexibility of place. The pandemic normalized remote and hybrid work, and it spurred ongoing discussions about where work takes place. “But for organizations that want to retain and engage women in the workforce, when work takes place is emerging as a new priority,” according to Deloitte. In its 2023 Women @ Work survey of 5,000 female employees worldwide, lack of flexibility around working hours was one of the top three reasons respondents gave for leaving their employer within the previous year — and was the No. 1 reason women gave for wanting to leave their current employer.
Supportive flex time policies include more generous paid leave, such as increased personal days and family leave time; compressed workweeks; split shifts that provide a set number of hours off in the middle of the day; and job-sharing, in which two part-time employees share the work of one full-time role.
Colorado is one state that offers compressed workweeks, allowing some employees to work four 10-hour days a week with one weekday off. “A job has to fit the organization, but it also has to fit the candidate,” says McNeil-Cusick, who herself works the four-day schedule. “We shouldn’t try to fit square pegs into round holes.” Employees’ needs change, and agencies should change with them, she adds. “If we aren’t able to adapt in the workplace, I know a lot of candidates — regardless of their gender — who wouldn’t be interested.”
Research seems to bear that out. In the Deloitte survey, two-thirds of female employees in highly flexible work arrangements said they plan to stay with their employer for more than three years, compared to 19% of women who have no flexibility.
Professional Development and Mentoring
Women benefit from support throughout their careers, which is why professional development should be a core part of governments’ retention strategy.
ICMA has created one ecosystem of support to help women grow their careers. The organization’s SheLeadsGov initiative provides coaching, mentoring, networking and professional development opportunities. A few governments have their own internal programs for women leaders. The city of San Antonio, for instance, has a well-recognized Women’s Leadership Mentoring Program for city employees. In place since 2014, the program pairs mid-level female professionals with a female city executive for a year-long one-on-one mentorship. Read more on mentorship programs here.
Other states and localities have internal development programs that aren’t specifically focused on women. Minnesota, for example, runs an Emerging Leaders Institute, a seven-month, cohort-based program for state employees. Participants receive instruction from experts in different areas, take part in small-group interactions, interview other leaders and receive 360-degree feedback assessments. The institute is complemented by other initiatives — including a Strategic Effectiveness for Aspiring Leaders program, a Senior Leaders Institute and an online Leadership Learning Hub — that help employees build skills throughout their entire career. The programs are not targeted just to women, but they may be effective nonetheless: In 2024, women held nearly 57% of leadership positions in Minnesota state government, according to Stallings, the state’s chief inclusion officer.
A Safe Space
Women can’t feel supported at work if they don’t feel safe. While attitudes and policies regarding sexual harassment have evolved significantly in recent years, there’s still work to be done. In the Governing/KPMG survey, 20% of women said they have encountered inappropriate conduct or an unpleasant work environment over their careers, while 15% cited sexual harassment or a hostile workplace.
Too often, though, harassment and inappropriate conduct still go unreported. More than one-third of women who have experienced sexual harassment did not report it to their organization, according to the 2024 Deloitte global survey. That report also noted that 47% of women said they are concerned about their personal safety in the workplace or while commuting or traveling for work. Of these women, one in 10 said they have been sexually harassed by a colleague.
Zero-tolerance harassment policies and better mechanisms for women to report these experiences — without fear of retribution — can create safer, more welcoming work environments.
Adobe Stock
An Adaptive Place to Work
In November 2024, a former firefighter in Jackson, Michigan, sued the city for workplace and gender discrimination. She had been Jackson’s first female firefighter, and her lawsuit included allegations of misbehavior from her male colleagues and a “frat boy-like atmosphere” in the firehouse.
But she also says there were other, more basic problems. The gear didn’t fit: The boots, gloves, face mask and other firefighting gear were all too big. She says the department refused to provide her with proper-fitting gear in women’s sizes, and she had to scavenge her own equipment from departments in neighboring towns. Beyond that, she says there was nowhere safe for her to shower or change into her uniform; for a while, she had to change clothes in a janitor’s closet.
Lawsuits like that are a reminder of how important it is for the physical design of government workplaces and equipment to take women into account. That includes sleeping accommodations, locker rooms and gear in firehouses and police stations. But gender-responsive design can also involve dedicated rooms in agency offices for pumping breastmilk. It might mean reserving certain parking spaces near building entrances for women’s safety and for the comfort of pregnant women. It entails forward-thinking design like glass offices and conference rooms that reduce the possibility of harassment — along with considerations like office furniture and equipment that’s ergonomically designed for women.
Building Better Government
Whether it’s targeted recruitment efforts, flexible workplace policies or more thoughtful professional development programs, state and local governments have several levers they can pull to create more supportive workplaces for women.
When agencies embrace all these approaches, they’ll do more than advance gender equity in public leadership. They’ll better reflect the communities they serve. And they’ll help everyone understand the importance of building viable, long-term career paths for women in government.
“I’m able to have an impact on the world my children will be living in,” Ange says. “To me, that’s inspirational.”
