SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - As Women's History Month draws to a close, Delaware town and city managers met virtually on Friday to celebrate the achievements Delaware women have had in local government.Â
The University of Delaware's International City/County Management Association Student Chapter and Delaware Women Leading Government hosted the virtual conversation. These groups say less than 20 percent of appointed city and county managers in the United States are female, but in Delaware almost half of the state's town and city managers are women. Many of them, and all who were on Friday's Zoom, are from Sussex County.
"Even if it's implicit bias and not outright sexism, there has in the past been a tendency for men to get those opportunities," says Lewes City Manager Ann Marie Townshend. "I think the fact that we have a lot of women in leadership positions throughout the state, women are positioned to do well going forward."
Townshend has been the Lewes City manager since 2017. Before that, she was a planning director in Dover, where current Fenwick Island Town Manger Teresa Tieman was the city's first female department head.
"I worked like a crazy person because there were all these guys sitting around the table looking to see how I was going to do," Tieman says.Â
Tieman and Townshend were two of seven city and town managers that participated in the conversation, all who came from different backgrounds to break barriers.Â
"I spent 21 years in law enforcement," says Rehoboth Beach City Manager Sharon Lynn. "Having been in a position in Pennsylvania in law enforcement and having attended and graduated from the FBI National Academy, I was recruited by a three-member elected board at the time."
One goal of the conversation was for the women leaders to offer up advice to empower others.Â
"We truly need different perspectives and ideas to address the problems that we work on in our communities," says Ocean View Town Manager Carol Houck. "To get a different perspective, you first need to create a workplace that is safe and supportive."
"We're all very familiar with the term founding fathers," says Bridgeville Town Manager Bethany DeBussy. "You get male dominating leadership and female supporting staff and that's changing because needs are changing. Delaware being small I think helped change that a little bit earlier and it's working well for us."
Many of the women leaders said that their advice to others who want to get jobs in leadership or local government is to get a mentor. Townshend says men mentoring women and vise versa helps to improve gender dynamics moving forward.
