The California City Management Foundation (CCMF) recently published a new member resource titled “Women In Leadership: The #13Percent Movement.” The 16-page document explores the “#13Percent” movement and how to support the upward mobility of women in local government leadership roles. The “#13Percent movement” label stems from a 2013 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Task Force on Women in the Profession survey that found only 13 percent of Chief Administrative Officer roles are filled by women–the same percentage as over 30 years ago.

“‘Women In Leadership’ is the first California City Management Foundation member resource that we’ve made available to the public as well,” said Ken Pulskamp, Executive Director of CCMF. “This issue is too important to limit to just CCMF membership and we hope our members will seriously digest, discuss and share the resource with their agencies and networks.”

“All managers should be aware that their approach to workplace diversity is a key to achieving a healthy organization. Gender diversity is greatly affected by the attitude of the CEO,” said Marcia Raines, City Manager of Millbrae and a CCMF Board of Trustees member. “As a manager, you can make a huge difference in future of your organization by acknowledging this issue and working with all the units of your organizations to improve. Treat this issue as if it applied to your wives, your daughters, your aunts, your nieces–because it does.”

“Women In Leadership: The #13Percent Movement” contains a look at the history of the #13Percent movement, multiple suggestions on efforts we can make to support the present and future generations of female city managers, and an appendix of firsthand advice from female city managers. To download the resource, please visit www.cacitymanagers.org/women-in-leadership.