Women-forward workplaces (small)

Somos Community Care

Physician-led health care network

Somos Community Care is responsible for the care of almost 10% of New Yorkers. Increasing care quality and elevating outcomes for women's health are its top priorities.

Today more than half of the Somos leadership, administrative and community outreach staff are women. As the network continues to expand, Somos purposefully seeks out women in health care administration and providers led by female-owned medical practices to ensure that all patients, regardless of their ethnicity or native language, can receive the comfort and care they deserve.

Somos Community Care supports Somos Latina, a female leadership program that provides opportunities for Hispanic women to grow and thrive. The network aims to bring more female leaders into the public eye as subject matter experts and community spokeswomen.

At the onset of the pandemic, Somos realized that its most significant strengths were the women providing the tools and resources to keep their communities healthy, from designing and implementing mass testing and vaccination sites to launching a free meal giveaway at the beginning of the quarantine period and successfully distributing more than 2 million meals to New Yorkers in need.

Elektra Health

Elektra Health, a next-generation women’s health care platform, believes in a future where the menopause taboo is dismantled and women have the support they need and deserve.

Dolly Martinez

CUNY

Chancellor’s chief of staff, associate vice chancellor for the executive office

In her dual roles at the City University of New York, Dolly Martinez has been helping women achieve their full potential.

“It would be challenging to meet another senior administrator with over three decades of public service who lives and embodies the ideals CUNY represents for the diverse metropolitan area we serve,” longtime supporter Glenda Grace said of Martinez, who doubles as the chancellor’s chief of staff and as associate vice chancellor for the executive office.

In Martinez’s view, effective mentors listen without judgment and frame a safe space where mentees speak freely, allow their vulnerabilities to show and know they have support. For her, good listening shows mentees that what they have to say is valuable.

Martinez’s mentoring style takes a simple and humble approach: Meet people where they are, and treat them with care and respect. The women Martinez has championed have grown exponentially in their respective careers.

In 2020 Martinez initiated the annual CUNY Career Compass Conference for Women Leaders to serve as a venue for informal mentorship and career development. Since the genesis of this vast networking platform, the conference has reached more than 6,000 women through peer mentorship, leadership development and mental health awareness.

Carrie H. Cohen Morrison Foerster Partner

Carrie Cohen began her career as a women’s rights lawyer.

Today, as a partner at Morrison Foerster, Cohen passionately mentors women lawyers at all levels and works tirelessly on issues that adversely affect gender equality and diversity in the legal profession. One of her core values is to consistently promote the importance of sponsorship, mentorship and allyship—using her leadership position to ensure that others receive the credit they deserve and are able to achieve their own goals and advance within the profession.

She works as a leader of the firm’s Women’s Strategy Committee, where she liaises with firm leadership to ensure that the advancement of women lawyers is a strategic priority and that women are obtaining the opportunities necessary to succeed and increase their economic power.

Cohen also founded the Women in the Profession Program for the New York City Bar’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, which provides professional development for women lawyers across 19 chapters throughout Central and Latin America.

Cohen was a co-author of two seminal reports on women in the courtroom, which motivated more than 200 federal and state court judges to adopt rules encouraging less experienced attorneys to take lead roles in court appearances. She recently created a scholarship program for women law students.

BY LAUREN DEFAZIO

Last year Elektra conducted a survey that found 20% of women have left or have considered leaving a job because of menopause symptoms, and 44% of women feel they don't receive enough menopause-related backing from their employers. Refusing to let women be negatively affected professionally because of the natural next steps of womanhood, Elektra expanded its offerings to health plans to offer world-class clinical care to women across every socioeconomic background. Co-founder and CEO Alessandra Henderson and her team initiated a partnership with EmblemHealth, which they said became New York’s first insurer to provide dedicated menopause services to 42,000 members in the tristate area. With an all-female executive team, Elektra leads the charge in ensuring that women stay well in the workforce by educating employers on the widespread lack of menopause support and how they can provide continuing benefits to better meet the needs of their employees.

Factory360

Marketing agency Factory360 has worked to cultivate an inspiring atmosphere where kindness, empathy and respect are embraced, and where employees at every level support one another.

Since 2021 Factory360 has won 28 new accounts and more than a dozen marketing awards, and its all-female creative team has grown by 60%. Fueling the company’s success is the ethos it has created and the importance it places on individual growth.

Factory360 is committed to diversity. Since the pandemic began, people of color make up 90% of the firm’s New York and Miami offices, and 53% of the agency’s employees speak multiple languages.

In regards to hiring, this womenforward agency is more interested in potential than résumé credentials. It is passionate about its intern program, where young creatives are given the opportunity to learn and shine.

Factory 360 outlines clear paths for the women on its teams to develop and direct their careers.

Women Builders Council

The Women Builders Council was formed by six women in 2004 to resolve the inequities disproportionately affecting female professionals in the construction and building industries.

What began with a vision to increase the representation of women and people of color has evolved into an organization run by a board of 44 women on behalf of major construction firms, minority- and women-owned business enterprises, and hundreds of corporate and individual members.

Through purposeful programs, the Women Builders Council has broken the concrete ceiling of its traditionally male-majority industry by bolstering women’s growth in the corporate sector, expanding opportunities for MWBEs and serving as a go-to resource for women at all levels.

To spotlight the growing number of female professionals, the organization launched its Outstanding Women Program for women over 40 and its Next Generation of Women Builders Program for women under 40. Another essential driver in leveling the playing field is the WBC Diversity Council, which empowers women and raises diversity throughout the construction industry.

“WBC gives all women a voice in the construction industry through its innovative programs that go beyond its members to reach hundreds of women,” said Christine Boccia, president of the council and owner of JD Traditional Industries.

Nontraditional Employment For Women

For 45 years, Nontraditional Employment for Women has been training and placing women in construction, utility and maintenance trades across the city. Through its programs and expanded employer base, more than 3,500 NEW graduates have found work in the past 10 years as electricians, carpenters, plumbers, painters, ironworkers, operating engineers and sheet metal workers.

Each year the agency strives to place at least 275 individuals annually and recruit 400 women and transgender and nonbinary individuals to join its training programs. It fuels a cycle of success and furthers leadership examples by recruiting instructors who are NEW graduates.

Reinforcing its commitment to create more opportunities for women, 93% of NEW’s full-time staff identify as female, and the majority of its student and graduate-facing team are Black or brown women.

In September 2022 NEW’s staff members attended the Equity in Focus Summit hosted by the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. With federal agency representatives, they advocated prioritizing women in infrastructure projects.

President Joe Biden recognized NEW for its continued efforts in supporting tradeswomen.

The Levinson Group

The Levinson Group is a femalefounded, -owned and -led communications firm. It executed the historic campaign that won equal pay for the U.S. women’s national soccer team and has led many successful strategies to resolve gender-based discrimination, press freedom and civil rights issues.

TLG served as a strategic commu- nications adviser to high-profile #MeToo survivors and global human rights advocates.

The firm led efforts to combat viral misinformation and disinformation and functioned as a campaign planner in pivotal Supreme Court matters. With this work, TLG exemplifies its deep commitment to pursuing work that advances women and gender equity.

Women lead TLG’s three offices, and the firm has grown quickly, almost doubling in size each year since its founding. As a result of its investment in the career development of its talented female communications professionals and the supportive culture, its retention rate is well above the industry standard, TLG says.

Many of the firm’s leaders joined through a first or second job out of college. Today women directly manage about 70% of TLG’s accounts.

Pen America

With its predominantly female staff, PEN America is a global, nonpartisan nonprofit organization that’s been around for 100 years with an unwavering commitment to free speech and free expression.

On behalf of women who have been persecuted because of what they have written or said against repressive governments, PEN America seeks to lift their voices and make their plight known through its worldwide campaigning. The literary organization’s core campaigns and programs include the defense of female writers, activists and public intellectuals under threat around the world. Its 2019 Freedom to Write Award honorees were three Saudi women who had been targeted for their advocacy of women’s rights.

In the United Nations and other international settings, PEN America has defended Iranian women charged with “national security” or “propaganda” crimes for questioning gender-based restrictions or proposing reforms to the current theocratic system .

The organization aims to lift the voices of these influential women and lay out a path for others to follow.

PEN America’s literary awards have a history of recognizing and celebrating female writers early in their careers, before they achieve significant success.

Vibe Theater Experience

For more than 20 years, Brooklyn-based viBe Theater Experience has been championing creative expression and promoting the professional growth of young women of color in the performing arts.

As a Black women–led nonprofit, viBe is determined to have women of color see a direct reflection of themselves in leadership within their organization. This arises from a profound understanding of the universal benefit that comes with providing disenfranchised groups opportunities to succeed. The theater company carries out this commitment through the rigorous artistic training and professional development programs it has designed to equip the next generation of arts leaders with the skills they need.

To recruit administrative and artistic talent, viBe partners with the WP

Theater, a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater; the Teaching Artists Project; and the City University of New York Cultural Corps. It regularly attends job fairs .

To ensure the proper support is in place for women to flourish, viBe provides internal and external opportunities for lateral and vertical mentorship, sponsorship and professional development. The organization offers employees a variety of healing modalities, such as subsidized therapy and movement-based wellness courses in part- and full-time employee benefits packages.

Since 2019 viBe has seen 86% higher employee satisfaction in internal surveys. Throughout the pandemic, the organization retained 100% of its staff.

Jbc

JBC is a boutique public relations agency that started as a two-woman team and has grown to a bicoastal, 50-person company.

The agency has helped launch disruptive, female-run brands collectively valued at nearly $1 billion. It has assisted these businesses in raising more than $500 million in venture capital.

JBC offers a range of benefits, including year-round office closures at 1 p.m. Fridays, four-day summer workweeks, a flexible remote-work policy, monthly mental health days and, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, a comprehensive reproductive-support package.

The firm provides an advanced reproductive care fertility benefit, which covers the spectrum of needs for family planning. That includes egg-sperm-embryo freezing, in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy and adoption agency access, and $5,000 for each employee to use toward fertility care every year for up to two uses.

Radical transparency regarding mental health is another reason JBC is getting noticed by job candidates. “I’ve never been part of a company that walks the walk this way when it comes to balance and prioritizing mental health and wellness,” said Emel Shaikh, a cultural media relations specialist.

JRT

JRT Realty Group, led by founder and CEO Jodi Pulice, is among the largest female-owned commercial real estate firms in the U.S. Numerous councils have certified it as a minority- and woman-owned business enterprise.

In 1996 Pulice set out to create a pathway for generational growth in the industry and give qualified women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and other diverse groups a seat at the table.

Last year JRT formed MWBE Unite, a first-of-its-kind commercial real estate platform to bridge industrywide supplier diversity gaps.

Since its launch, MWBE Unite has more than 100 firms hired or in discussion in an array of areas, including affordable housing development, recruiting and executive coaching, sustainability reporting and event planning.

“My wish is that one day there is no longer a need for a woman-owned or a minority-owned business to become certified to compete for business in and outside of the industry,” Pulice said. ■