To write GovFem articles, I scour the internet everyday for the newest and best articles and op-eds about women working in the public sector. While many of those articles end up in our GovFem posts, we unfortunately can’t cover them all in the weekly series. That’s why we created the GovFem Reading List, which will highlight the top posts from around the web each month.
This January, we saw a lot of great articles about approaching the new year with a better understanding of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. My top five favorites are:
1. What Women Want From Their Employers, in 5 Simple Charts
Even though it isn’t government-focused, I love this article because it covers a wide range of universal issues – things like paternity leave, work-life balance, and gender equality – impacting women’s happiness at work. And it does so in a visually, easy-to-understand way.
2. How to Bridge That Stubborn Pay Gap
Similarly, this New York Times article dives into six tactics known to decrease pay inequality between genders. While none of the tactics (things like negotiating for salaries and publishing wages) are particularly earth-shattering, this article presents them in a succinct way and builds the case for a multi-strategy effort at wage equality.
3. Three Crucial Questions for Uncovering Unconscious Bias at Work
Questions like, “Who do I dislike working with?” may seem unrelated to workplace bias, but this article argues that it can actually help you identify who might be unconsciously excluded from your team. Rather than calling out obvious examples of diversity exclusion, this article from employment lawyer Natalie Holder presents a new way to think about providing equal opportunity at work.
4. Meet the Obama White House’s ‘Smurfettes’
This article highlights two women working in the Obama administration – Nancy-Ann DeParle and Alyssa Mastromonaco – who used their secret service code names and self-given nicknames to subversively call out the lack of female representation in the executive office. It’s a great personal piece on the two deputy chiefs of staff but it also offers some interesting statistics about the administration’s female leadership (or lack thereof).
5. EY Senior Civil Service Women’s Leadership Index 2016
This isn’t an article, but this annual report from a private firm in the UK is always worth a read to get an overview of how women fair in the public sector across countries and regions. For a quick overview, you can reference this summative article.
And in case you missed them, catch up on this month’s GovFem posts:
- How Does Your State Fare? Women at the State and Local Level
- How to Make Job Descriptions Female-Friendly
- How to Network if You’re Shy
Every month, GovFem compiles a list of the top articles about women in government from around the web. If you have an article you think should be included in next month’s reading list, email [email protected] with your suggestions.
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