Headmistress Jill Miller
Jul 15, 20185 min
This is a list of the actions we came up with at our meeting. After groups brainstormed on action ideas in 5 categories, participants voted on their favorites, by placing stickers of different colors on their first, second and third choices. As we compiled the actions, we assigned a point value to each sticker color and tallied the votes.
Points Women in Government Actions
54 Support candidates (vote, serve on committees, walk neighborhoods)
42 Helping overcome barriers (time, money ,etc.)
32 If not me, then who (then support them)
32 Build confidence by learning negotiating and public speaking skills
27 Change the culture of embracing new people
21 Going to local govt meetings
16 Form a coalitions of women in governments
13 How to get more women involved in government.
13 Inform people about political opportunities
12 Volunteering for campaigns
11 Research candidates as well as history (65 years. County commission/ 28 years. Sedgwick Co.
elected office/judges)
11 Make a connection and coalition with students
8 Call your representatives
Points Women in Entrepreneurship Actions
49 Mentorship programs
31 Share knowledge
28 Change Wichita more progressive (family city) not single friendly
23 Become more comfortable with finding and securing capital, investment
16 Diverse Industry, more corporate headquarters incentive
16 Encourage girls to go into business/ know options
14 Say yes
12 Hiring and promoting other females
12 Safety net- provide to women entrepreneurs
11 Organizations that highlight women entrepreneurs
10 connections within industry/ collaborating with industry peers
8 Women are not risk-takers - change
8 Break the cliques
7 Financial training strategy, child care, emotional
6 we need to support team-building among entrepreneurs
6 Encourage women entrepreneurs to volunteer to speak
5 Advertise where the "table" is
4 Building a list of women service providers, experts
4 Overcoming cut-throat attitude (men + women can improve)
4 Woman score for only women-advisory board
4 Provide more accesible resources for building biz
4 Eliminate the gate keepers
3 Meeting fellow women in business
3 Informal community gatherings
3 Educating women about sponsorship
2 Process oriented perfectionists
2 Hard on ourselves than others
2 Higher standards for girls
1 Mentoring and helping other women
0 Target market/ doing business research
0 How can we as business owners help in community
0 Chamber of commerce non-profit work, volunteer kansas, united way 211
0 Weighting benefits of trading with vendors/ other groups
0 Working together toward goals
0 paying commesurate to industry standard
0 Women business group
Points Talent Drain Actions
41 Start early - start young, connecting our youth with business/professional women
26 Educate and give parents the tools to help their children dream bigger
25 Change political dynamics! Forward thinking
23 Employer educational assistance to college students - career pathing high school job after
graduation
22 Business Policies - corporate engagement in diversity and inclusion, actually change and not just have the conversation
21 family friendly policies (parental leave, benefits, daycare)
19 Increase wages(who can influence this?)
17 Encourage employers to do wage benefit audits
16 Promote idea of life after high school in Wichita
16 Middle school mentorships of people who make the city run and make kids dream bigger
15 More cultural/diverse opportunities (concerts, cultural celebrations, venue selection), partner with private industry to subsidize diverse acts
10 Tech military college
10 Lean into our discomfort and figure our how to become more diverse
10 Be more supportive of other people/women
10 Incentives to stay (money, loan forgiveness)
9 Research
5 Diverse industries
5 Internships/Apprenticeships (paid/subsidized)
5 Additional childcare providers
4 Promotion of available activities
1 Educate about the community
0 Engagement in the community
Points Wage Gap Action
31 Education of new employees - negotiation
29 Research what has worked in other cities, where did it begin
24 Advocacy from business leaders/ develop coalition dedicated to this issue (biz, non-profit, gov, etc)
24 Training men as allies - not enemies
21 Negotiation techniques - no matter where, demand upfront
20 Support candidates who support those issues
19 Business to be wage transparency, leverage for their business
16 Mentor pre &post hire
13 Task Force
11 Huge public information campaign (wide audience)
10 Empower others
10 Childcare & family leace for all parents
9 Support minimum wage increase
5 Metrics for wages - women in leadership, women on board
3 Be around people who encourage and challenge you
3 Businesses explicitly supporting women
3 How do Businesses rank
3 Transparency
2 Brainstorm how to communicate values
2 Be indispensible
1 Making public aware of the exportation of college degreed women - talented women
1 Kidnapping for ransom - internal audit with guide& empl. Wkshp
0 Priority
0 Penalties - public/incentives (like leed - govt, accredidation?)
0 Arson - holding feet to fire
0 blackmail
0 Negotiation
Points Leadership in the Workplace
45 Mentorship with both women & men as mentors (including "mini-mentorships" - shorter time span,
etc.); how to move up, how to set goals, how to talk about difficult topics with supervisors
28 More conversatons like tonights - with men
26 Empower people to be a leader by action, not title
19 Teach women they CAN be a leader, don?t have to make a choice between family and career
18 Advocate for paid parental leave
16 Intentionally look for women to fill role
12 Support life outside of work - balancing work/life, mom guilt
11 Involve current leadership - Engage people who can make change happen
9 Provide education and training to women in business (taxes, marketing, etc)
9 Address biases
8 Micro-cultures - cultivate positivity and acceptance at these levels to support the company culture
8 Create opportunites
8 Engage with stay-at-home-mom community and seniors
7 Women: Communicate what you want - find company to foster you, create empowering
environment
7 Encourage young women & girls at younger ages (more dialogue)
4 Look at best practices for HR policies - how they help/hinder women (chamber, bring people
together), look at data, case studies
4 Wichita a conservative city - how do we talk about this in language that?s understood and well
received?
4 Communicate with women inmen dominated industries
4 Multi-generational partnership (hiring, networking, etc)
4 Access to resources
3 Promote opportunites
3 Recognize need
3 Is talking about male/female approaches a danger? -data/stereotypes (gender roles?)
3 Broaden regular sexual harassment training - its not just harassment - more subtle things, biz
practices, etc.
3 Mentors in all industries willing to engage minorities and young people
2 Remove the resistance that causes people to leave
1 Utilize collective resources, provide needed resources
1 Get people out of comfort zone by encouraging involvement and education
1 If you're in a group with all men and want to speak up on behalf of coworker - how to do that
0 Mentoring - people like me
0 Culture of inclusivity
#LeadershipintheWorkplace #WomeninGovermnet #Womenentrepreneurs #WageGap #TalentDrain #ConversationstoAction #JamesChung #FocusForward