Help advance women’s leadership

By Diane Ramsey

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In early 2012, a group of 15 women's organizations from across the state sponsored SHE MATTERS, a comprehensive study of the status of women and girls in Iowa. The resulting report showed that in the areas of health and well-being, achievement and autonomy, and employment and income, Iowa women and girls often lag behind their male counterparts.

Multiple factors have been cited to account for these discrepancies. The SHE MATTERS report provided a snapshot of current conditions, not an explanation of why these conditions persist. Clearly, women's own choices about their careers and family obligations, for example, are part of the equation.

But I have another theory: The status of Iowa women will improve when more Iowa women achieve positions of leadership, with sufficient power and influence to affect conditions for women statewide. Consider these SHE MATTERS findings:

l Just 21.3 percent of Iowa legislators are female. Iowa has never elected a female governor or a female U.S. senator or representative to Congress.

l Women make up 75 percent of Iowa teachers, but only 14 percent of Iowa school superintendents are female.

l Only 16 percent of members on boards of directors for Iowa's 11 largest companies are female, though research has shown female representation on corporate boards is tied to higher corporate earnings.

l From 1997-2012, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. grew by 54 percent; in Iowa, that growth rate was only 21 percent - last in the nation.

Acknowledging that Iowa has a female leadership gap is an important first step. Before we can close that gap, however, we must understand more about the nature of women's leadership itself. How do women define leadership? How can we more effectively identify, train, mentor, and support Iowa women leaders in all fields of endeavor? What helps women advance, and what holds them back?

To answer such questions, IWLC has partnered with Vernon Research Group of Cedar Rapids to launch Pathways to Leadership, a landmark, longitudinal study of women's leadership in Iowa. The first Pathways survey is now under way. I encourage every woman in Iowa who leads in any way - from heading a company to chairing a volunteer committee - to participate at www.vernonresearch.com.

Results will be announced at IWLC's fall women's leadership conference, on Oct. 16.

I hope you participate in and spread the word about this project. Help advance women's leadership and improve conditions for an underutilized resource: Iowa's talented women and girls.

Diane Ramsey is executive director of IWLC (formerly Iowa Women's Leadership Conference). To read the full SHE MATTERS report, visit IWLC's website at www.iwlcleads.org.