Women's History Month 2025
Programs & Events
HERstory Planning Trivia with the Chair and Networking
Take a break and join the Women & Planning Division for planning trivia and networking. Win prizes! Flex your planning expertise! Connect with fellow planners! Have fun! All are welcome, but registration is required and limited to the first 100 registrants.
HERstory Featured Webinar: The Bossy Bias
"Bossy bias," i.e., mischaracterizes and unfairly penalizes women's assertiveness as inappropriate domineering behavior (or worse). Bossy bias undermines women's leadership potential, reinforces gender inequity, and erects barriers to success.
In this webinar, panelists will share their experiences with gender bias in the workplace, its unique impact on women's career trajectories, and how it perpetuates gender inequity in professional settings. You will hear about the very real impacts of the bossy bias on women's careers, including how it plays out in hiring, leadership assessments, and everyday interactions.
Participants will also learn to create unbiased decision-making processes, encourage diverse leadership styles, and implement organizational changes supporting women's advancement while eliminating the burden of likability standards.
Join the fight and combat bossy bias in your workplace!
All are welcome, registration is required.
HERstory Coffee Break: From Planner to Founder: Starting Your Own Planning Business
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Breanne Rothstein, AICP, founder and CEO of Thrive Consulting! Breanne brings over 20 years of experience in community and economic development, housing policy, and organizational leadership across public, private, and non-profit sectors.
Breanne will share her journey of launching Thrive Consulting—what led her to take the leap, challenges she faced in her first year, and lessons learned in building a successful planning business. If you’ve ever thought about starting your own firm or want to hear from an experienced planning entrepreneur, this session is for you!
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, connect, and celebrate Women’s History Month with APA WPD! See you there!
All are welcome, registration is required.
Register for Planner to Founder
Why We Celebrate Women's History Month: A WPD Essay
The Women & Planning Division was created by and for women in the planning profession in 1979. Over the Division’s 40+ year history, one of the longest running Divisions in APA, the needs of women in planning have evolved but our mission remains the same:
To provide a national network supporting women in the planning profession and advocating for the needs of women in the planning practice.
In this Division, we expose and champion the ways in which our profession can better support women in the workplace; enhancing equity, closing the gender wage gap, equally paying women for equal work, flexible workplace policies for home/work balance, providing affordable childcare options, and seeing gender parity in our most basic of institutional accolades; FAICP inductees. We will continue this message to overturn these stark differences that we see through our work as a Division, programming, networking, connecting, and on the national stage at NPC.
Read on for a full history of our Division linked below on our website!
Women's History Month Archive
2025
HERstory Featured Webinar: HerCity
Join the Women & Planning Division for this informational webinar. HerCity is a research initiative focusing on the concept of the gendered city, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities involved in creating spaces that cater to the needs of girls, and introducing a step-by-step methodology and digital tools ensuring girls' voices are heard and integrated into urban development. This is an essential presentation for planners, city officials, and everyone who is committed to building cities where every voice matters.