women and leadership

This week we kicked off the new Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) and an impressive group of executives joined us for a chic party, presentations by women entrepreneurs, and a private screening of the new Sex & the City movie.

The idea behind the initiative is pretty simple, and it came to us from our members. For some time we've heard from businesswomen who want new ways to connect with their peers (other than traditional networking). And, ultimately, they'd like to provide meaningful support to women trying to enter the workplace and work their way up.

We were fortunate to have Mayor Dixon as a speaker and guest for the evening. Including the Mayor, the top four elected officials in Baltimore are women. That fact, and the overwhelming support Hillary Clinton had in her near-miss presidential run are testaments to how far women have come in terms of being seen as leaders.

On the other hand, there is still a sense that women aren't yet equal with men in the business world. This certainly is true when it comes to the pay rates. The salary gap has narrowed, but nationally men still make more than women for comparable work. You could also credibly argue that cultural bias hindered Hillary Clinton's chances in the Democratic primary. And then there's the strong encouragement we got to create the WLI in the first place.

This week's WLI kick off felt like the start of something big, and we hope everyone will consider getting involved. Our next event will be this fall. We're still working out the details, but we can promise this... it will be fun, educational, and it just might change the world.

-mike

cities doin' it for themselves

The April edition of Metropolis magazine features an article by Karrie Jacobs about how cities are taking the lead on issues of national importance (like California did on CAFE standards and curbing auto emissions), while the feds are slowly having to catch up. She writes:

"I’ve noticed that America’s big-city mayors have emerged as a sort of government in exile, putting forth a remarkably progressive, and occasionally visionary, domestic agenda while the federal government has been AWOL."

Jacobs started thinking about this role reversal during a talk by then-Mayor O'Malley. He was frustrated by the lack of help and information he wasn't getting out of Washington in the wake of 9/11. Instead of waiting for DC to get its act together, Jacobs writes that O'Malley, "organized with his fellow mayors in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia—a sort of mini-NATO pact for the Delmarva region."

Jacobs continues:

"What struck me while listening to O’Malley was the extent to which America’s cities are on their own, taking a leadership role on issues that used to be the job of the federal government. New York City, for example, now has a crack antiterrorism agency within the police department, one that I instinctively trust more than the FBI. And it’s not just in preparation for cataclysmic events like 9/11 or Katrina; cities have stepped up to address issues such as global warming and the decay of our infrastructure."

Unfortunately, there are limits to this bottom-up approach. The feds are fighting tooth and nail to keep states like Maryland from adopting their own regulations on things like auto emissions. And earlier this week, Mayor Dixon testified to Congress that, despite stepped-up local efforts to curb gun crimes, meaningful improvements to gun control laws are needed at the federal level if we hope to slow the rate of gun violence. According to today's article in the Baltimore Sun, Mayor Dixon testified that, "If we could solve the problem of illegal guns without coming to Washington, we would. But we need help from the federal government."

-m.e.