Growing leadership among women

Since its inception in 2007, Iowa women have shown extraordinary interest in the Iowa Women's Leadership Conference.

More than 400 women showed up to the first event and attendance has grown steadily since then.

All 850 of this year's general admission tickets are spoken for, months in advance of the April 26-27 event.

The conference is open to current and aspiring female leaders of any age, ethnicity or occupation.

Through speakers, breakouts, panels and presentations, conference organizers aim to inspire and challenge those women to leadership while giving them the tools and resources they'll need to succeed.

“What we're looking at is all aspects of women's lives - whether they're in the private sector, the public sector, non-profit philanthropy, volunteerism or their own avocation,” Iowa Women's Leadership Conference Executive Director Diane Ramsey told us this week.

This year, organizers have even invited Cedar Rapids Mayor Pro Tem Monica Vernon, and former Republican state Senators Maggie Tinsman and Jean Lloyd-Jones - all board members of the newly formed “50-50 in 2020” group - to discuss that group's work toward increasing the number of women in the Iowa Legislature and higher offices.

About half the women who attend the Iowa Women's Leadership Conference are from The Corridor, Ramsey told us. Most work as managers at medium and large-sized companies, although a number work for non-profits or in education.

The conference gives them a chance to share experience across different fields, and among women in different stages of their careers.

“The whole idea is to cause women to think,” Ramsey told us. “To be inspired, to connect with and network with other women.”

That's nice, you may say, but in business, the bottom line is the bottom line. There, too, developing women leaders in Iowa makes a lot of sense.

Research shows there a positive correlation between gender balance in leadership and profitability. Fortune 500 companies with significant numbers of women at senior-level positions outperform their peers.

“We call it our gift to Iowa,” Ramsey said of the conference.

That gift is about to get bigger.

In November, Rockwell Collins hired Ramsey, who has been a driving force of the conference since its earliest days, to expand the event and launch other initiatives with similar goals - to take the development of female Iowa leaders to the next level.

It's a smart investment on Rockwell's part - a way to identify and nurture the leaders who will help take the company into the future - right here in our own backyard.

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