We've Come a Long Way, Baby, But We're Not There Yet!
Iowa's Gender Balance Rule Is Not a One-and-Done
"You have to see it to be it." That's what # 1 world tennis champion Billie Jean King said, as she reflected on the importance of young girls having role models in life. As a 12-year-old girl competing on the Long Beach, California, tennis courts, she learned early on that women often faced higher standards than men.
I was the mother of a young daughter in 1987 when Iowa first required gender balance on state boards and commissions. In 2009, this requirement was expanded to county and city boards and commissions, effective in 2012.
But in 2024, some Iowa legislators are pushing back. "It is time for Iowa to get beyond this ideological purity test and just get on to merit and putting the best people in the best place," states Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig. Schultz seems to assume that adding women (or men) to achieve gender balance fails to recruit "the best people". I find his comment patently offensive. First, in the case of women, they earn a majority of degrees at every level of education: from high school through college to Ph.D. Secondly, why is gender balance "ideological"?
Gov. Kim Reynolds also has pointed out that Iowa is the only state requiring equal numbers of men and women at all levels of government, or a majority of no more than one on boards with odd number of members. If Iowa is unique in this regard, why assume that Iowa must be wrong, or simply a misguided outlier?
Seven other states recommend or require gender parity on state boards and civic commissions. In Iowa, the percentage of gender-balanced boards has risen significantly since the requirement. "In 2022, 48% of state boards achieved gender balance," says Carrie Ann Johnson, Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. By 2020, 15 counties and 33 cities were gender balanced. But Iowa's boards still are not balanced by gender. https://cattcenter.iastate.edu/research/gender-balance-project/
Critics say it's difficult to achieve gender balance. But if the board or commission still is not gender-balanced after three months of good-faith recruitment, there's no penalty or sanctions. So, what is the big deal?
One and Done?
"Gender balance isn't a political issue," Johnson states. "It works for both parties. Participation by Republican women has skyrocketed in the Iowa General Assembly."
So, let's examine evidence that gender balance in Iowa has been resolved in other realms, starting with the Iowa legislature. Today 24% of Iowa Senate seats are held by women; 31% of the Iowa House are women. Women never have reached gender parity in the Iowa legislature, either. Thirty counties never have sent a woman to the Iowa legislature.
Iowa elected its first female governor in 2018, its first woman U.S. Senator in 2014, and its first women to the U.S. House in 2018. Iowa has been a state since 1846. So, tell me, how do these numbers prove that a gender balanced requirement no longer is necessary in Iowa?
What other benchmarks in Iowa, or around the world, suggest we've evolved beyond the need for gender balance?
The Global Gender Gap Report measures gender equality, using the following four measuring sticks:
· Political empowerment
· Economic participation and opportunity
· Educational attainment
· Health and survival
In fact, Europe has the highest gender parity in the world, at 76.3%. It's no coincidence that European countries have deliberately invested in the infrastructure to support women, including childcare, paid maternal leave, and universal health care. The U.S. ranks at #43.
Try Harder!
We've already witnessed the recent backsliding and backlash regarding the status of women in Iowa and across the U.S. It's safe to say that if the goal of gender balance is removed, Iowa's boards, councils, and committees will become less diverse and less representative than the demographics of the communities they serve.
But first, I'd like to know what specific boards are struggling to achieve gender balance? And why is it difficult? In Iowa, in 2022, 63.9% of women were in the labor force. In addition to their high participation in the job market outside the home, studies also show women are the primary parent responsible for their children's school and activities as well as the household chores. Research also reveals that women, more often than men, provide elder care to family members.
Or maybe it's difficult because women more often are asked to serve on church committees, as 4-H leaders, and other volunteer roles in communities?
It's complicated. But the need to achieve gender balance isn't simply for the sake of window dressing. "We have strong research showing that diverse boards make better decisions, and have better outcomes," Johnson says. "It makes economic sense because they're more productive." Women comprise over half of the U.S. population. Representation on boards and councils establishes more credibility in the eyes of over half of Iowa's constituents.
Four years ago, Paula Dierenfeld, who has served as mayor of Johnston for 16 years, spoke at the Iowa Women in Agriculture Conference (IWIA). She pointed out that only 15% of Iowa's mayoral positions were held by women in 2018. However, this exceeded the percentage of women elected as county supervisors.
Dierenfeld said a strong argument for achieving gender balance is that appointments to boards and commissions often are the launching pads for women to serve at higher levels, including elected policy-making offices.
Agriculture traditionally has been a male-dominated profession and industry. In Iowa, over the past several years, we finally achieved a few firsts: former Farm Service Agency director, Amanda DeJong; Department of Natural Resources director, Kayla Lyon; former Deputy Secretary, Department of Ag and Land Stewardship, Julie Kenney. Is this trend sustainable, or simply a series of one-offs?
DeJong, who spoke at the 2022 IWIA Conference, said, “Many women say they only got involved because they were asked, multiple times. Women lack role models in office, and often need to be encouraged to get involved in public service or to run for office. Other women feel they don't have either the time or qualifications."
Women's Autonomy and Pay Equity
What are other potential roadblocks to achieving gender balance on Iowa boards and committees? The ability of a woman to control her own reproductive future is key to equality in the workplace, and in public life. I'm not sure how anyone can argue that women should step up their participation to achieve gender parity on boards if they're blocked from control over their own childbearing and reproductive health.
Here's another one. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, yet the gender wage gap in 2022 for all full-time, year-round workers in the U.S., based on median earnings, was 16%.
On the other hand, women are over-represented in other categories that pose significant roadblocks to full participation on boards, commissions, and city councils. Domestic violence is the top cause of injury to women. Every 9 seconds in the U.S. a woman is assaulted or beaten. Every year, one in three women victims of homicide is killed by her partner, or former partner. An estimated 91% of rape and sexual assault victims are female; only 9% are male, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
The Hidden Figures Effect
Removing the gender balance requirement was first proposed in 2023 by Sen. Schultz. Since that time, a federal court ruling in January found that Iowa's gender balance requirement for judicial nominating commission was unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Yet, I've read that Iowa also requires some boards and commissions to represent key constituencies, including veterans, certain professions, disabilities, income levels, and political parties. Will these balance requirements be eliminated?
Gender stereotypes also play a role in the challenges of achieving gender balance: "You need to see it to be it." Women have been under-represented throughout history. How many of us were aware of the pivotal role played by three black women mathematicians in NASA's launch of the space program in 1961 – until we saw the 2016 movie Hidden Figures?
Here's another example. We all know throughout history that men were the hunters; women were the gatherers. Right? Not so fast!
In 2018 in Peru, an excavation revealed the body of a woman who was found with a hunting kit (projectile points, flakes, scrapers, choppers, and burnishing stones). After doing more research in the early Americas, the Wayne State University excavation team announced in 2020 that big game hunting between 14,000 and 8,000 years ago was gender neutral. Dr. Randy Haas, the leader of the excavation team, concluded last year, "We've had biased interpretations. And the idea that sexual division of labor is an inherent part of human biology is a trope that has played out in structural inequalities today."
Do you suppose? Invisibility leads to an absence of role models. As a woman, I'm proud that Iowa is a state that cares enough about reflecting all its citizens – men and women– at the state, county, and city levels. Iowa's explicit gender balance law is held up as a national model. But more importantly, it also sends a message to its citizens that their expertise, intelligence, and skill sets are valued.
Iowa women have made strides in education, and this will contribute to greater gender balance at all levels. But roadblocks remain, and progress won't continue to be made in Iowa unless our leaders are intentional about it. We're not there yet, Baby!
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This is the very best explanation I’ve seen. A big thank you for this column!
You have done it again, Cheryl. We are on the same page on this one. I write a column for my local newspaper and I brought attention to this last week. I used IX as examples of gender equity. Thank you for your deep dive.