Bill would repeal gender balance requirement for Iowa boards

DES MOINES — A decades-old set of laws requiring Iowa’s boards and commissions to have an equal number of men and women would be repealed under a bill Iowa Republican senators advanced on Thursday.

Supporters of Senate File 2096 said Thursday the gender discrimination the laws initially were written to address no longer exists and boards should seek the most qualified applicant, regardless of gender.

They also questioned whether the existing laws are constitutional after a federal judge struck down gender balance requirements for the State Judicial Nominating Commission last month.

State law requires the boards and commissions that govern different segments of the Iowa government, professions and industries to be gender balanced. The law provides that if a qualified candidate has not been found within three months, the commission can waive the requirement.

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Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who introduced the new bill and chaired the subcommittee, said the necessity of the bill has passed as women have assumed more positions of power in the state.

“It’s 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,” he said. “And that is more and more becoming what the people of Iowa have decided.”

Schultz and Republican Sen. Chris Cournoyer of LeClaire voted to advance the bill out of the subcommittee. Democratic Sen. Claire Celsi of West Des Moines voted against the bill. It is now eligible for consideration in the full Senate State Government Committee.

Celsi said women have faced barriers to leadership for decades. While progress has been made, Celsi said her past service on boards was essential to preparing her for public office.

“Serving for 10 years total on two different state boards was an amazing experience, and I got to meet people from all over the state,” Celsi said. “And it prepared me for leadership, leading a board, meeting new people from all over. It was just great. And if it hadn’t been for the gender balance law, I would have never gotten the chance to do that.“

1987 law was expanded

The gender balance requirements for Iowa’s state-level boards and commissions first became law in 1987. The mandate was extended to city and county boards in 2012.

Several people from women’s rights and civil rights groups spoke against the bill, saying it would set back a landmark achievement in the state and lead to fewer women in Iowa’s halls of power.

Karen Kedrowski, a political science professor and the director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, said Iowa has the best parity in the nation on its boards and commissions because of the gender balance law.

Iowa is the only state to require gender balanced boards at all levels of government, according to research from the center.

“Diversity is a public good,” she said. “A government that reflects the demographics of its community increases its legitimacy, especially among members of underrepresented groups.”

Federal ruling

The requirements are facing constitutional questions after a federal judge struck down the requirement for one board — the State Judicial Nominating Commission — in January.

In her ruling, Judge Stephanie Rose said the gender balance requirement violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because it prevents Iowans who want to sit on the board from doing so because of their gender.

She said in her ruling that to maintain the law, the state would have to prove that there is discrimination present in that particular commission in the present day, and she said there was no evidence for that.

More women?

Supporters of the proposed bill also said some boards that oversee women-dominated fields may see an increase in women after the gender balance requirement is removed.

“I’m a little offended as a woman, personally — not in my client’s opinion — that we all assume that if we get rid of this that it’s going to be men that start dominating the boards.” said Sandy Conlin, a lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa.

“I think if you look at our governor, who her staff are, who she appoints to the department directors, that I really don’t share that concern at all. I think we might actually see many boards where there are more females than men on the board.”

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to propose a bill that would remove the gender balance requirements from law, part of a larger plan to restructure and eliminate many of Iowa’s boards and commissions.

That proposal came after Reynolds signed a law last year to reorganize state government, which included convening a committee to review the boards.

Comments: cmccullough@qctimes.com