NORTHEAST TALLAHASSEE, FL — The Tallahassee-Leon Commission on the Status of Women and Girls is launching a new initiative to help businesses implement changes that better support women in the workplace.
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The initiative called “Businesses for a Better Tallahassee-Leon” aims to put workplace inequities in the past.
Chair Jazmyne Bryant says changes can include providing private nursing spaces for mothers, putting period products in restrooms, installing changing tables in restrooms, evaluating parental leave policies, and providing information on domestic violence and anti-trafficking prevention.
"Sometimes policy can take a little while for implementation, so we started to think about other stakeholders and avenues to make an impact in community as well," Bryant said.
According to Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2025 survey, a majority of women wanted to leave their current employers because of work-life balance, low pay, and limited flexibility.
Tamara Smith, the Community Director of Women Wednesdays, and Kelsie Pace, the Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for Diana Health, say this conversation is necessary as they have seen this inequity firsthand.
“Our entire population is women and their babies and their support systems, and we have a majority female staff as well, so having these conversations and knowing kind of what is needed and what we might be missing,” Pace said.
"Every day as the community director for Women Wednesdays, I'm talking to women who are saying that they are still struggling with the basic needs that they have in trying to juggle all parts of their life,” Smith said. “I think that we as a community are moving forward.”
Bryant says her main goal is to increase business engagement, but she noted the organization also has the capability to make policy recommendations to elected officials.
They are looking at places like Miami-Dade County, which created an ordinance requiring baby changing tables in restrooms in certain types of new or significantly renovated businesses.
"It's not something that we're trying to make punitive or make businesses very frustrated, but it's really just identifying a variety of ways businesses can engage in advancing our community," Bryant said.
Bryant said her goal is to get 10 businesses involved in the initiative over the next six months and then expand it to more businesses in Tallahassee.
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