Iowa’s dilemma: Fixing the culture, not the woman

No matter which way you look at it, Iowa has a problem when it comes to women in leadership.

In business, women only make up 22 percent of executives at Iowa's public companies and 25 percent of private, for-profit executives. Only 16 percent of board members listed by public companies are women.

And in politics, women comprise 28 percent of local, county, state and federal elected officials. They make up 29 percent - less than a third - of county board members, and 37 percent of municipal board members.

Iowa has never elected a female governor, while U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst became the first woman in the state to be elected to national congress, in 2014.

One way to fix this problem?

Get men to join the conversation, experts said.

'Until we highlight the differences between how men and women approach leadership opportunities, we can't move the needle,” said Tiffany O'Donnell, chief operating officer of Iowa Women Lead Change, a Cedar Rapids-based not-for-profit aimed at improving women's leadership development.

Research shows that women are more hesitant to believe they're qualified for a promotion or to run for office, O'Donnell said.

'We like to have 11 of the 10 qualifications,” she added. 'We need to show male leaders that, in general, we need to ask women and then support women.”

IWLC added a men's track to its Eastern Iowa conference in 2015, which attracted about 80 men, to better educate men on women's leadership issues, O'Donnell said. Registration has jumped to about 100 this year, and the organization hopes to expand the track to other markets.

'It's really interesting to see male leaders with these light bulbs going off,” she said.

The half-day men's track is designed to help men learn about gender differences in addition to the business rational for taking an active role in promoting women; male cultural norms that need to be overcome; and how to establish strong partnership between men and women.

Companies with more diverse leadership - both women as well as ethnic and racial minorities - attract better talent, have better reputations and grow their revenues by more completely understanding their customer base, said Jeffery Tobias Halter, a public speaker and author of the book 'Why Women: The Leadership Imperative to Advancing Women and Engaging Men.”

Halter, who was the director of diversity strategy for the Coca-Cola Co., will be a keynote speaker for the men's track at the IWLC Eastern Iowa conference April 26.

Halter said during a phone interview that he focuses on educating the decision-makers at companies, who are often white men, by tying diversity back to the bottom line. In doing so, he engages men in the women's leadership conversation, which is key, he said.

'A lot of women's training is focused on fixing women,” he said. 'Women are good enough right now. But culture is driven by male norms. ...

We have to overcome male cultural norms.”

In business

'It's really important to include men in the conversation,” said Nancy Kasparek, Cedar Rapids market president for U.S. Bank. 'We can do all of the education we want, but we need people at the table who want to change the dynamic.”

Banking is certainly a male-dominated industry, Kasparek said, and U.S. Bank is no exception, pointing out there are about 45 market presidents for U.S. Bank and only a handful are women. But the bank launched several new programs in March aimed at increasing the number of female leaders, Kasparek said.

Those programs include a business resource group for women to network and have educational opportunities, in addition to specific initiatives for high-potential women, including a sponsorship program - in which someone in a senior leadership role advocates and champions younger talent.

'Women are over-mentored and under-sponsored,” Kasparek said.

Kasparek credits some of her progress and success at the bank as well as her involvement with community boards to her sponsor, Steve Caves. He helped her get onto a marketing committee at Waypoint Services, she said, where she then worked hard to get a spot on the board.

'He used his political capital to advocate for me,” she said.

As Kasparek moved up through the bank's ranks, more opportunities opened up for her, she noted. Now she serves on the boards of Mercy Medical Center, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, Four Oaks, Big Brothers Big Sisters and JDRF - the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Brenda Clancy, global chief technology officer at AEGON - whose U.S. operations, Transamerica, has offices in Cedar Rapids - said she and other senior leaders were in Baltimore in March to discuss ways to improve the number of women leaders at the global financial company, which sells life insurance, pensions and other products.

'I'm almost like the poster child,” she said. 'I've been here a long time and am one of the few women to operate at that level.”

Clancy, who started at the company right out of college, said she looked for opportunities and worked to fill gaps and take on additional responsibility. She also had several male mentors who vouched for her and helped her move up in the company, she said.

'I was working in the life insurance division when the controller left, and I just picked up a lot of the responsibilities he had,” Clancy said. 'A few men in the office told the president, ‘Why don't you give Brenda the job, she's already doing it?' It's been helpful to have people give me that nudge to go outside my comfort zone.”

Elsewhere in Cedar Rapids, electrical supply distributor Van Meter Inc. has implemented new policies to better attract and retain more women, said Kevin Powell, president and chief executive officer. This was something he put into motion after visiting the University of Iowa College of Engineering with his son.

Powell also used the tour as a recruiting trip, to bring 'the best and the brightest” to Van Meter. He quickly realized that a lot of the women in the engineering college already scooped up job offers.

'We just weren't in the game,” he said.

So Van Meter added nursing rooms, implemented a six-week maternity and paternity policy, and eliminated its vacation policy - allowing employees to take time off when they need it as long as they get their work done. Having these flexible policies helps Van Meter attract the 'best and the brightest,” Powell said, both men and women.

The company also has started a women of Van Meter group in which Powell and other male employees participate, he said. The purpose of the group is to help build women's self-confidence, he said, through product training and skill building.

'We need to make sure men in the industry know that they need to mentor leaders - not just the proteges that remind them of themselves.”

In politics

'At one point, we calculated that I was the 34th woman elected to serve in the state Senate in the last 100 years,” said Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids. 'We could certainly improve on that track record.”

Having more women represented in elected offices improves policy outcomes and garners more public trust, according to research by Political Parity, a Cambridge, Mass.-based think tank that is pushing for more women to serve in political leadership.

The organization said:

l Women are 31 percent more effective at advancing legislation or seeing continued success farther into the legislative process.

l Women are more likely to prioritize issues affecting women, families and children than their male counterparts.

l Women are more partial to non-hierarchical collaboration, consensus building and inclusion than men.

But women also are far less likely to run for office.

When women are asked to campaign for an open seat, they ask, 'Am I qualified,” while men ask, 'What are my odds at winning?” Mathis said. So it's important to recruit strong female candidates and champion them along the way.

'Women have to encourage other women. But men also have to be there to say, ‘Are you kidding? You can do this,'” Mathis said.

Running for office can be hard for women, Mathis said, and it can be challenging to maintain confidence throughout a campaign.

'We have to keep proving ourselves,” she said. 'We have to dance backward and do it in heels.”

When Mathis was first elected during a special election in 2011, state Sen. Rob Hogg sat her down to help her figure out who to meet and what to do.

'It was so valuable,” she said. 'So when (Sen.) Rita Hart (D-Davenport) came in, I showed her the same things.”

Mathis said there's a strong camaraderie among the women in the Iowa Senate - they have dinner and talk about the bills they're working on.

'We're there to share information and support each other,” she said.

That kind of camaraderie is also something former Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston said is important. For much of her time serving on the board of supervisors, Langston worked hand-in-hand with former supervisor, Lu Barron, who chose not to seek re-election in 2014.

With Langston's departure from the board this month, she said this marks the first time in quite a while that a woman's voice will not be represented on the board.

'I am saddened by that,” she said. 'There's research out there that shows when women are involved, businesses do better. It's not that different in government,” Langston said. 'Women bring a certain perspective and balance when governing that is important to have, especially on a county level when it comes to human services.”

People run for office when they're asked to do it, Langston said, and so it's important to encourage and cultivate female leaders.

One way to do that is by electing other women to key leadership roles, so they think, 'If she did it, I can do it, too,” Langston added.

'We had a big win in 2014 when we elected Sen. Ernst. We got a big monkey off our back,” she said. 'This is not to say that (Lt. Gov.) Kim Reynolds is not important, but we've had a female lieutenant governor for years. When will we have a woman in the top spot?”