Pittsburgh Mayor Hires Men. Yawn

Wow. The Mayor has recently appointed 4 directors, 1 assistant director and a city solicitor.

One is a woman, Judy Hill Finegan as director of the Department of Personnel and Civil Service Commission. Judy's predecessor was also a woman so there's no net gain for female leadership within this Administration.

Now I can't get on the Mayor's press release list so I have to cite the Post-Gazette. I wonder how many female driven media sources are on the press list?

The moves continue "the reorganization of City government as [the mayor] charts the course for his first four-year term," a news release said.

Remember, this Administration worked with the Women & Girls Foundation on a gender pay equity study for City employees. Equity in pay is certainly linked to equal opportunities in terms of high level decision making positions. Right?

One recommendation from the study was increased representation to address actual and perceived inequities.

Finding: Females face additional barriers hindering their pursuit of advancement opportunities in City government. The lack of females in higher level jobs indicates that there have been self imposed, organization, or structural barriers to women seeking to move into the higher levels of the organization in the past.
Focus group and survey data support this perception. A subset of focus group participants (approximately 20 percent) felt that gender discrimination plays a key role in the ability of come City workers to advance within the ranks of government. Other participants felt that favoritism and political motivations played a bigger role. Specifically, these employees cited that women do not become as involved in politics in the City and as a result do not progress to the more power jobs. Regardless of the reason, there is a lack of female representation in higher level positions.

The Mayor has defaulted once again into the the tried and true method of maintaining the status quo by failing to identify the women (we know they exist) qualified to lead these departments or at least one of these departments.

Business will continue as usual.