Department of Public Works

2002 Gender Analysis Update

 

On February 27, 2002, the Department of Public Works provided an update of its progress toward accomplishing the goals defined in the Gender Analysis. The following update draws directly from the CEDAW Task Force Minutes from that meeting:

 

REPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

Jim Horan, Ann Godfrey, and Ed Lee from the Department of Public Works (DPW) provided a report on their progress in implementing the recommendations from the DPW gender analysis. They also submitted an extensive written report and additional materials.

 

Overall, DPW has found that the process of conducting the gender analysis and implementing the recommendations has resulted in:

 

1) the Department as a whole having a greater awareness of gender issues,

2) assisting women in the Department feel more comfortable speaking up, and

3) assisting management to be more responsive to women's concerns.

 

Among the successes in their implementation process are the following examples:

• Proactive recruitment of women participants for a project management training.
• Creating a second EEO officer position.
• Development of the resource center, the number one concern of employees in the Department, that offers training for professional advancement, job postings, advice on workplace problems, computer training, and proactive outreach and support to employees.
• Recruitment programs like Project Pull which achieved a 60% participation rate from female students and 100% participation rate from youth of color
• A women's mentoring program which pairs engineers from within the Department with professional engineers outside the Department (and has assisted succeeding in helping a number of women move on to higher level positions; unfortunately for DPW this means leaving the department).
• Initiating a women's support group for female employees.
• A commitment to services which impact women, including public access automatic toilets, underground wiring for lighting, and lighting of construction canopies.

 

Among the unexpected findings was the realization that many of the people who volunteer for the Department and/or work in non-profits collaborating with DPW are women.

 

Task Force members expressed the following concerns:

• The Department's ability to continue with their implementation process when leaders such as Ann Godfrey and Collie Gains, both excellent trainers and CEDAW supporters, retire. Ed Lee, Executive Director of DPW, clearly stated the Department's commitment to continue progress in these areas.
• That the Department be more proactive in its recruitment and treatment of women.
• That the Department incorporate gender specific curriculum into its training programs.
• The Department's most recent statistics on women employed by the department demonstrated very little improvement in the last two years, especially in the skilled crafts, and that the department is still not meeting the 1990 SF Labor Pool employment statistics based on sex in almost every category with the exception of engineers.

 

Time ran short and Task Force Member and as well as members of the public were asked to forward further questions about the report to DOSW staff.