Advocacy

Part of advocacy is finding common cause with colleagues in relationship to amplify our concerns on the journey to making change. We do this together, by engaging in shared work, through listening to each other, raising questions, and lifting up the issues that drive forward the possibility for change toward gender equity. Below, learn more about our various working groups that meet roughly quarterly to forward new and equitable solutions to the challenges our community is facing, both inside our Jewish organizations and in hiring and employment processes.

 

 

Salary Range Transparency

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Choosing not to include a salary range on a job description is often called "salary cloaking." It means that an applicant cannot know where to begin their negotiations, or even if the position is appropriate for them.  A position listed without a salary range is a waste of time in a hiring process for employers and employees, and creates more work for all. And most of all, it perpetuates the gender wage gap, deepens disadvantages for people from marginalized communities, and discriminates against women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people who typically are not entering into negotiation with the same kind of negotiation experience and with already significant wage gaps. When we demand salary range transparency on job descriptions, we take the first step to ameliorating these community-wide challenges to trust, both interpersonal and organizationally. Join us to make salary range transparency the expectation on every new and open position in the Jewish community. This working group is open to all.  

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Ethical Terminations

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Over the course of 2020, the Jewish community has seen massive numbers of employees terminated by Jewish organizations. In many cases, these organizations have laid off employees with no notice, over Zoom, in ways that have offered no dignity and no care. In other cases, where an effort was made to manage these departures with respect, gaps were visible that left individuals with no support system and no resources, grasping for help and most vulnerable. In addition, the burden of these terminations was laid on the shoulders of mid-level employees, most often women, to carry out the decisions made by leadership, often men, and they were not equipped to manage these processes and left holding the emotional baggage. We now have a system that is aware of the gap between these various processes and the Jewish values of care, respect and dignity that we hold dear, and a deep-seated need to align them for the future so that we may see Jewish organizations prepared to ethically and responsibly let go of employees in the future, and employees who thus will be prepared, because of the respect built into this process, to move forward with dignity. This working group is open to all. Note that this is not a support group, but we are happy to provide resources to those who would like additional resources for support at this or at any time in this process. 

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Compensation Philosophy and Salary Banding

 

This group was founded to inquire into and provide space for the next step in the pay equity conversation: salary banding on the journey to comprehensive compensation philosophies. For those just beginning this conversation in their workplaces to those who have thoughtfully articulated compensation practices, we invite the conversation about how to create transparent pay practices on the way to fully equitable workplaces. This helps each one of our organizations become more responsible, not only to their employees but to their constituents and stakeholders, and shares the clear message that equity for people of all genders and all marginalized and under-represented communities--is a priority. This working group is open to all. Human resources experience is not necessary, nor is one required to serve in an HR function to join us. 

 

Executive Directors to CEOs: Making the Transition

 

Titles matter. Research indicates that more women in not for profits, especially Jewish organizations, hold executive director titles, and men hold CEO titles, which convey both different kinds of respect and often are tied to different levels of career advancement and salary. In this space, we are engaged in the sharing of data, resources and collegial thinking about this shift, supporting colleagues considering making this shift, and contemplating why this shift is meaningful and relevant. Does title matter? Where does title convey power, and why and how does language matter? This group is reserved for female-identifying colleagues who hold executive director or CEO titles.  

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Board Governance & Feminist Leadership

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The ways we govern and lead our organizations and communities cannot simply be duplications of the hierarchical, masculine power structures that are currently in place across our Jewish community. In this working group, we are struggling to identify the feminist values that guide our ways of working and leading, and those that might help us to structure our organizations (from both an advisory and an oversight perspective). In what ways can we design new leadership structures, both for boards and for professionals, that are imbued with feminist values? Together, we are considering models for board governance infused with and guided by feminist values (for example, empathy, or a culture of care), and plan to look toward organizational design using specific structures of feminist leadership principles. This working group is by invitation only. For more information, please contact Sara Shapiro-Plevan. 

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