In Fall 2024, Madeline Becker, a concurrent undergraduate student in economics and political science and master’s student in economics, completed a research project on county supervisors for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center under the direction of Karen Kedrowski, director.
Becker pored through records provided by the Iowa Association of Counties and the Iowa Registrar’s Office to identify all the women who served as county supervisors in Iowa to create a complete database of women county supervisors from 1969-2024.
The first woman elected as county supervisor was Dorothy Buckingham of Pottawattamie County in 1969. Since then, at least 234 women have served as county supervisors from all corners of Iowa. Counties with substantial urban areas, such as Johnson and Pottawattamie, have elected the most women. Fifteen counties, primarily in rural areas, have yet to elect a woman county supervisor. A plurality (49%) of women county supervisors identify as Republican.
Becker’s research also identified some former county supervisors who had long careers in Iowa politics or made substantial contributions to their communities, such as Margaret Tinsman (Scott County), Donna Smith (Dubuque County) and Martha Willis (Polk County).
“This resource is a valuable addition to the Catt Center’s growing repository of information on Iowa women in public life,” says Kedrowski. “The Catt Center will continue to update this information to better understand women’s political progress in Iowa.”
Becker graduated in December 2024 and was named an LAS student marshal. Her research was supported by Kedrowski’s Whitaker-Lindgren Faculty Fellowship in Political Science. The complete report, “Iowa Female County Supervisors: Who? Where? Why?,” is available on the Catt Center website.