Michigan Municipal League’s 16/50 Project Spurs New Texas Women’s Program

Women aspiring to be city managers in Texas now have a new leadership program to help them in their career trajectory, thanks in part to the Michigan Municipal League’s 16/50 project. The first Texas Women’s Leadership Institute has kicked off after their Executive Director Karen Daly reached out to the MML regarding how the 16/50 project’s Women’s Municipal Leadership Program was developed in 2018.

The new program was created by Texas Women Leading Government as a way to bridge the gender gap that exists within the top position of local government management. According to Ms. Daley “Our State WLG Chapter was trying to figure out how to move the needle in Texas for women city managers. We are currently at a deplorable 12%. After studying MML’s program, we felt very comfortable using many of the components to put our first Texas Women’s Leadership Institute together. While we only have one of the components of the 16/50 project, we hope to show its success so we can add more programs in the future.”

In Michigan, only 16% of municipal CEOs are women, compared to women comprising 50% of the state’s population. This statistic launched the MML into action two years ago, developing a multi-layered approach in tackling the gender disparity via the 16/50 project. The areas of focus are educating local elected officials on gender bias, providing professional development to women in municipal government, and attracting women into the field of local government.

We are very proud that our program can serve as a model to other state organizations that are seeking to bring greater gender parity to the local government management profession. Since our first Women’s Municipal Leadership Program class graduated, we’ve seen 5 of the 24 participants obtain city manager or assistant city manager positions.
To learn more about the program please visit our website.