Celebrating 365 Days of Women in Government

Happy Anniversary! 

About this time last year, I was sitting in a meeting with other GovLoop staffers thinking through ways we could better serve our audience of over 200,000 public servants. We talked about what challenges they face and how we could help them overcome barriers. We talked about what govies wanted from public service and how we could achieve whatever that was. And we even talked about the little things they face at the office every day that we could simply call out to say, “Guess what, you’re totally not alone in that.”

It was an awesome conversation, with a lot of great ideas tossed around. But as we thought about every segment of government, from GS-1 to SES, I couldn’t help thinking, “Isn’t this a little different if you are a woman in government? Do female public servants have their own challenges and aspirations that we aren’t quite addressing?”

I decided that, yes, there was a hole in the support we were providing govies. Then I decided to address that gap by creating a series of articles, interviews, resources, and videos dedicating to capturing the female experience in government. GovFem was born.

One Year Later

If you’ve been with GovFem since it started last December, you and I have spent a whole year chatting about the issues, challenges, and even some fun facts about women in the public sector. In case you are a little late to the party (it’s okay, welcome!), here’s what you missed:

Since December 2015, we have published 53 articles. Altogether, those articles have accrued more than 48,000 page views!

Based on page views, these are our top five most popular GovFem posts:

1. 3 Tips to Negotiate a Government Salary – Who doesn’t want to make more money? This post explains how salary negotiations work in the public sector.
2. The Basics of Salary Negotiation – This post kicked off an in-depth series of posts on salary negotiation by starting with the basics.
3. 10 Must-Read Books For Women in Government – After you finish reading “Lean In,” what’s next? This post has 10 great recommendations for books to learn from.
4. Executing the Perfect Coffee Meeting – How do you convince someone to let you pick their brain about their job or your field? This post walks you through the entire process, from the ask to the thank you.
5. Make Job Descriptions Female-Friendly – Men and women read job descriptions differently. This post explains how to make yours more appealing to female candidates.

We also interviewed a few amazing women leading the public sector, including:

• Ann Dunkin, CIO of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Jill Melnicki, a technology consultant in state and local government
• Michelle Crockett, National Program Director for Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service and President of Federally Employed Women
• Asha Aravindakshan, Operations Director of Global Talent at Ashoka and former Chief of Staff at the Office of the CTO for the District of Columbia
• Megan Costello, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement in Boston
• Esther Aguilera, President and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and former Senior Executive at the Department of Energy

Finally, we visited the Federally Employed Women’s National Training Program in New Orleans and the Next Generation of Government Training Summit to hear from even more awesome speakers about how women work in government.

It’s been an awesome year! And we’re not stopping there. Stay tuned to GovFem for weekly posts, interviews, and even a few videos about women in the public service!

Have ideas for future GovFem article topics? Let us know in the comments below or email me at [email protected].