Austin City Staff Got Special Training to Deal With Female Elected Officials
City hall staff in Austin, Texas, went through an unusual training session recently. Two speakers were brought in to teach them how to deal with those rare elected officials—females.
For the first time, after decades of male domination, the Texas capital’s city council is majority-female. Ten of the 11 council members are now women.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the city manager thought this necessitated training that involved tips on how to manage women’s disinterest in financial analysis, the fairer sex’s excessive questions, and their emotion-driven decision-making processes. Yes, this really happened.
“Whether you believe women are from Mars, Venus, or Jupiter, talk about men basing their decisions on facts and women on emotions is just frankly outdated and highly unprofessional,” said councilmember Ann Kitchen at a press conference held by female city council members, who were not invited to the training, the following day.
A majority of Americans—75 percent—believe women and men are equally capable political leaders, according to a Pew Research Center study on women in leadership from February. Nevertheless, Austin’s city council is an outlier among government bodies around the country. While a record number of women are currently serving in the U.S. Congress, they still make up just 19 percent of the House and Senate.
The Austin city manager’s office decided the shift in leadership warranted consulting the expertise of Jonathan K. Allen, a city manager from Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, whose local commission is all-female, and Miya Burt-Stewart, who owns a business development and marketing firm. City hall spokesperson David Green told the American-Statesman that the two-hour training, which took place March 27 and was called “The Changing Dynamics in Governance: Women Leading in Local Government,” was a “timely and relevant professional development opportunity.” Allen has since been fired from his position in Florida. No word yet on whether Austin City Manager Marc A. Ott, who is appointed by the city council, will keep his job.
The training video has been removed from Austin’s website because its “content was not consistent with the city’s culture, philosophy, or management approach,” according to a statement.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Food Is Free in This Austin Neighborhood—But the Land Doesn’t Come Cheap
• How ‘Feminism’ Became a Dirty Word in Washington
• Meet Six Women Politicians Who Busted the Glass Ceiling on Election Day
Original article from TakePart
