Not quite New York’s, but Philly publishes online resource guide for women

Two years in the making, Philadelphia's online guides specifically for women have been posted, directing them to groups that can help develop job and leadership skills, fight discrimination at work, raise money for small businesses, and find financial support.

The first installment went online last month, and the Philadelphia Commission for Women in the Mayor's Office of Public Engagement has since added more guides — with additional ones planned, including one targeted to women getting out of prison.

The city's effort comes a few months after New York City launched a website in May — women.nyc — that helps women find jobs, health care, child care, and financial and legal help in a bid to brand the city as a destination for women.

Philadelphia officials had been working on their own, similar resources guide. Their ambitions are more modest — its guide is not as user-friendly or elaborate as New York's — but it is still a step above the paper packet Philadelphia had been distributing.

"A printed resource guide is out of date the minute you print it, because organizations come and go," said Jovida Hill, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission for Women. "A digital version permits us to be accurate. It permits us to be relevant and topical."

Guides like New York's and Philadelphia's aim to help women address gender wage gaps, career stagnation, and other forms of gender-specific discrimination. Hill said in June that if Philadelphia hopes to shed its title as the country's poorest big city, it needs to lift its women out of poverty.

Sixty-one percent of households in poverty in Philadelphia were headed by women in 2016, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

So far, the commission has outlined available resources in four categories: economic empowerment, health and wellness, education, and leadership and civic engagement.

It posted lists of organizations with the groups' contact information and links to their websites. The guides are samplings of organizations the commission is familiar with, a contrast to New York's guide, which mostly highlights the city's own resources.

New York's guide is a separate, interactive website with a personal feel, photos, and resources grouped by actions and needs. Women.nyc's drop-down menu makes finding answers to specific questions easy with choices such as "find a job," "manage my money," and "afford NYC living." No other city government has attempted a project as ambitious as New York's.

Hill called Philadelphia's guide a "run-of-the-mill resource guide," and said New York was trying to do "something broader and different."

Philadelphia officials said web upgrades that transformed the city government website last month will be adopted by other city agencies, and the Philadelphia Commission for Women may then decide to redesign the resource guides.

"Our resource guide is not the New York City portal," Hill said. "I don't think our resource guide fairly should be compared to that, because the goals were different and the resources were different."

Philadelphia did not dedicate funds specifically for the guides and worked within the parameters of the commission's website using a simple listing format. New York is working with a $450,000 budget for its website, including nearly $100,000 just to get the word out about it.

Philadelphia's health and wellness guide includes groups such as Women Against Abuse, Girls on the Run, and the Black Women's Health Alliance. The Asian American Women's Coalition, the Forum of Executive Women, and the League of Women Voters of Philadelphia are among the organizations featured in the leadership and civic engagement guide.

The education guide includes the Network for Women with Careers in Technology, Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs, and Teen Uprise, a mentoring organization. The economic empowerment guide includes Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Philadelphia, Female Hebrew Benevolent Society, and the Women's Opportunities Resource Center.