Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill on April 3 that ends a mandate that state, county, and local decision-making bodies must be balanced by gender.
After thanking specific parties involved in the legislation, Ms. Reynolds said: “I just want to thank everybody that’s played a role in this to get this common sense bill to my desk and now it is certainly my pleasure to sign it into law.”
Before Ms. Reynolds’ signature on the bill, Iowa was the only state in the United States to require explicit gender balance on state, county, and local decision-making bodies.
This policy was discontinued to coincide with a nationwide trend away from gender and race-centered policies.
The Iowa legislation received approval in both the House and Senate before reaching the governor’s desk, ending the three-month waiting period previously mandated by Iowa law prior to the evaluation of board, commission, and committee applications from individuals of any gender.
By repealing the requirement for officials to first identify a qualified applicant, organizations such as the Human Rights Commission, or the licensing board for physicians in order to achieve gender parity, proponents of the legislation assert the governing bodies will be more fair and efficient.
Iowa state Sen. Chris Cournoyer (R), who sponsored the legislation, spoke before the signing, saying: “Our foremothers who fought hard over many, many years to get us a seat at the table ... are smiling today.
“They got us to the table, and it has been up to us to show that we belong there, and we have. There are more women than ever participating in STEM careers, trade sports, and public service and that’s just to name a few.”
The lawmaker encouraged the women of her home state to “find a board and commission that you’re interested in and get your application in.”
“It’s incumbent on those that select the members to make sure that they are picking the most qualified and best to represent the occupation that they will be representing.”
Before the bill’s passage, the lawmaker expressed disappointment at the notion that the number of women serving would decline in the absence of the requirement.
She stated that the requirement hinders the number of qualified women who are able to serve on such committees.
“Women who have worked hard to earn their success should not have that success diminished by those that depend on a system that allows them to fall upward,” Ms. Cournoyer said.
Democrats in Iowa who were speaking against the bill cited statistics on the number of women serving on boards and commissions in every county, giving credit for women’s advancements to the mandate.
“Simply because progress has been made does not mean it’s not going to roll back,” Sen. Janice Weiner said to her colleagues. Additionally, she asserted that public servants who come from a variety of backgrounds bring important perspectives that impact decision-making.
Before its implementation in 2012, Iowa was the first state to mandate that statewide boards and commissions meet gender quotas for their membership.
The measure was initially enacted by the state legislature more than three decades ago and was subsequently expanded to encompass all levels of government.
Legislation in over a dozen states mandates that statewide boards and commissions appoint members whose genders are representative of the populations they serve.
Courts are progressively focusing their attention on these statutes.
Last year’s decisions by the Supreme Court to repeal affirmative action in college admissions have reignited legal contests against all types of diversity policies.
