Gender Balance Project

Until the 2024 repeal of Iowa’s gender balance legislation, gender balance had been required on Iowa’s state-level boards and commissions since 1987 and for county and municipal boards and commissions since 2012. The Gender Balance Project aims to understand the extent to which gender balance was achieved on county and city boards while the legislation was in effect, and any effects of the 2024 repeal.

Data were collected first in 2012-2013, and then again every other year since 2015-2016. Reports from the Gender Balance Project are shared along with the reports for the Women in Iowa Politics Database.

The Gender Balance Project was originally funded through a gift from the Friends of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, and is now supported in part by a private gift that funds an undergraduate research intern.

Opportunities

Visit the Iowa Talent Bank, which strives to pair individuals interested in governmental roles with city, county, and state governments looking for those willing to serve.

Gender balance research

• 2014 Gender Balance Project Results Brief
• Gender Balance Legislation at the State and Local Level
  Wendy Jaquet, 2015. Updated in October 2018.
• Going for Gender Balance in Iowa: Will it be Successful?
  Rebecca J. Hannagan and Christopher W. Larimer
• History of Gender Balance Brief
  Last updated 4/4/2024
• Make Way for Women: Gender Quotas in American Government Under Dominance Feminist Theory
  Muriel Collins, 2021
• Navigating the Path to Presence: Ideology, Politics, and the Campaign for Gender Balanced Boards and Commissions in Iowa
  Ezra Temko, 2019
• “Piecemeal” Advocacy, Radical Accomplishments: Adding Normatizing to the Advocacy Toolbox
  Ezra Temko, 2022
• Pipeline or Pipedream: Gender Balance Legislation’s Effect on Women’s Presence in State Government
  Shannon McQueen, 2021
• Recruiting Gender Balanced Boards and Commissions: A Guide for Cities and Counties
• Sex Differences, Personality, and Ideology: A Deeper Investigation Via Contexts in a Study of Local Politics
  Rebecca J. Hannagan, Christopher W. Larimer and Matthew V. Hibbing, 2016
• States with Gender Balance Legislation
  Last updated 4/4/2024
• Who Serves? Gender, Personality and their Impact on Decision-Making Groups in Local Politics
  Rebecca J. Hannagan, Christopher W. Larimer and Matthew V. Hibbing
• Women and Civic Engagement in Kansas City
  Barbara A. Kerr, Xanthippe Wedel, Tracy Schmidt and Cassi Donn, 2014
• The Women’s Foundation Appointments Project^®: Best Practices for Civic Boards and Commissions
  Rachel Dicke, 2019

Information on this website, including but not limited to fact sheets, graphs, and reports, can be used for non-commercial purposes, provided that clear and visible credit is given to the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women in Politics at Iowa State University. Any information used must include proper citations of that information. Commercial reproduction requires prior permission in writing from the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.