Fearless 10.2.23

Good morning, Fearless readers:

It’s my favorite week of the year: world gymnastics championships week. If you need a lift, Simone Biles and Team USA will be competing in Antwerp, Belgium. Biles is the only American woman to compete in six world championships. She won her first all-around world title in Antwerp a decade ago. You can find a broadcast schedule here. Watch her soar with the women and girls in your life.

In this week’s e-newsletter, you will find:

An in-depth story about Iowa potentially ending its law that requires state boards and commissions to have an equal number of men and women serving. A panel submitted its final report to the governor’s office on Sept. 25, recommending that the Iowa Legislature strike down the gender-balance law, which has been on the books since the 1980s.
A Q&A with Katie Shawver, the new manager of the Knoxville Municipal Airport.
A news brief about Joy Hankins, founder of the Joy of Curls in Des Moines, who recently won $30,000 at a Hy-Vee pitch event.
In the headlines: A new study shows that most women do not feel supported at work around their menopause needs, which can directly affect their career trajectories. Women in senior leadership are particularly affected.
A break from the news: Drake soccer star Zoey Mahoney showed us how skills mastered in youth can help us years down the road – in seemingly unrelated fields.
Lots more!

– Nicole Grundmeier, Business Record staff writer

Iowa’s law requiring representation of women in government is in jeopardy, and advocates say that ditching its nearly four-decades-old provisions would be a mistake.

The state started in the 1980s requiring that appointments to state boards and commissions result in gender-balanced boards. About 12 years ago the rules were expanded, with some additional leeway, to cover panels appointed by counties and cities. But a state panel is recommending repealing the law in order to “allow the most qualified Iowans to serve.”

How we got here: Panel makes suggestions for streamlining government

The proposal comes out of a broad effort to streamline state government. The state Legislature this year formed a temporary Board and Commissions Review Committee to examine the viability of hundreds of panels established by state law where Iowans, mostly volunteers, provide advice and oversight on a broad range of state functions.

Over the summer, the committee held one public hearing and produced a report of recommendations for the Legislature, which it approved Sept. 25.

Most of the proposals deal with eliminating or combining boards or revising their duties, but the committee also made a series of overarching recommendations. One of them was to eliminate Iowa Code Section 69.16A, first approved in 1986, and similar rules elsewhere in state law that require state boards to have close to an equal number of men and women in most circumstances. The requirements were expanded to appointed panels in local government in 2012. (Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, then a state senator, voted against the expansion.)

The committee recommendations are not binding. The Legislature, which next meets in January, must amend state law to implement any of them.

Iowa’s law produces tangible benefits, advocates say

Some Iowa leaders who advocate for women’s rights expressed dismay about the proposal.

Karen Kedrowski is a professor of political science and director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center at Iowa State University. She said that about a dozen states have recommendations for state-level positions but that Iowa’s requirement, that half or nearly half of each panel be women, stands alone.

“When we look at the 38 states or so that don’t have any recommendation or mandate, what we see is that men are overwhelmingly overrepresented on state level boards and commissions,” Kedrowski said. The exceptions usually fit stereotypes: women making up half or the majority of boards dealing with the arts or preservation, she said.

“So mandates matter and they do ensure more diversity.”

Grant, the League of Women Voters Iowa president, said the law is serving its purpose and should be retained. She said the proposal to appoint “the most qualified” people raises many questions.

“It seems to me that that language is trying to be exclusive rather than inclusive,” she said. “What do you mean by ‘qualified,’ anyway?”

Grant also expressed concern about separate proposals to consolidate various commissions for people of color, as well as the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. “I really have my doubts that one organization could serve all of them equally,” she said. “Somebody is not going to get the attention and representation and work that that particular group needs, and they all need it.”

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, said Iowa’s law “continues to accomplish its goal over and over and over again. Everybody who has analyzed it in a serious capacity has come to that conclusion.”

Crow added: “It’s going to have a lot of negative impacts, not just in terms of the opportunities that Iowa women and girls get, but also in terms of how people view our government and how people view their ability to have an impact on our government.”

Opponents: Quotas are illegal, outdated, unnecessary

The law’s opponents say that gender-based quotas should have no place in Iowa. They cause harm and complications that outweigh any benefits, they have said.

Two Iowa lawyers challenged Iowa’s laws in federal court last year with the aid of the Pacific Legal Foundation. Rachel Raak Law of Correctionville and Micah Broekemeier of Iowa City said they wanted to run for election this year to be on the panel that recommends judges for the state appellate courts but were not eligible because the election in Raak Law’s area was for a man and the one in Broekemeier’s area was for a woman. A federal judge declined to intervene before the election, although the lawsuit is continuing with another plaintiff who is ineligible for a 2025 election for the judicial nominating commission.

“This committee and Gov. Reynolds should ensure that all Iowans are treated equally before the law and that no one should be excluded from public office because of their gender,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Laura D’Agostino testified before the board’s review commission in early September. “Gender quotas not only prevent qualified people from serving and further impose logistical problems and filling seats, but they are unconstitutional and violate the 14th Amendment.”

State Sen. Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, helped advance a bill to repeal the gender-balance laws in January, although it never advanced to the Senate floor. “The law has to change along with the culture, which no longer needs a quota system,” Schultz said at a subcommittee meeting, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. “Looking for the best, most qualified people is a better way to go.”

Schultz wrote in the spring that many Iowans, including in the governor’s office, thanked him for bringing the bill forward because it complicates their work to fill boards. “The opposition to the bill has centered upon left-wing social engineering advocates who seek mandates to enforce their will,” he wrote.

Schultz did not answer an emailed request for comment from the Business Record/Fearless.

The review committee’s final, unsigned report says that “legislative history clearly indicates the goal of the gender-balance requirement was to place more Iowa women into places of leadership in state government” and notes that, since the 1980s, Iowa has elected a female governor and currently has a 50% female congressional delegation. This illustrates “that Iowans have changed their collective mind on any perceived inequities between men and women representing the State of Iowa in leadership positions,” the report says.

Professor: Women are qualified, even if they often downplay their experience

Kedrowski, the Iowa State professor, also took note of the proposal about “qualified” Iowans.

“We do know that women tend to discount their own qualifications. We see this all the time when trying to recruit women to run for public office,” she said. When it comes to appointed positions, “women might say, you know, ‘I don't know anything about aviation, so I can't be on an airport board.’ But we don’t know that the men who are going on the airport board have any more qualifications than women do.”

It’s important for boards that handle occupational licensing and oversight to have experts, and that a more limited pool might make gender balance harder to achieve, Kedrowski said. But the benefits of equal representation apply just as much, and “harder” is a long way from “impossible.”

“There is nothing that indicates that a mandate such as the gender balance law in any way means that you cannot find qualified candidates,” she said. “You just have to look in places that you might not be accustomed to.”

Put bluntly, “the power brokers might have to look elsewhere besides who they play poker with, who they play golf with, who they know through their business contacts, and be able to think more creatively,” Kedrowski said.

RELATED STORY (from January): Bill proposed to eliminate gender balance law for boards and commissions

Katie Shawver joined the Knoxville Municipal Airport as its manager six months ago, but her experience with aviation and flying began 20 years ago. Growing up in Las Vegas, she was fascinated by Thunderbirds air shows and trained to be a pilot starting in high school. She has flown professionally for corporate companies and for the U.S. military in a civilian capacity. She moved to Iowa from Las Vegas with her husband, Kyle, who grew up near Knoxville.

In her new role, Shawver is working to expand the airport’s reach to develop interest in aviation careers among youths and add to Knoxville’s sense of community.

“My biggest role with being new at the airport is I want it to be more of a pillar of the community. I don't want it to be if you're not a pilot, you can't be here. I want to show a movie projected on the hangar where families can come do stuff that’s not really aviation related,” Shawver said.

One of Shawver’s goals is for the airport to be a partner in making pilot training more accessible. The airport is currently training several students as pilots, but Shawver said given the higher expenses related to aviation, she is looking toward creating a model that is sustainable long term.

Shawver shares more about the airport and her goals below.

What type of activity is the Knoxville airport currently used for?
It's used primarily for general aviation, which is probably more hobby flying, and then we also have the skydivers here now too, and all their sales tax goes back to Knoxville. They've brought a lot of people that are from outside Knoxville into Knoxville. They've had a tremendous impact, I think, on the city. With jumpers every weekend, it stimulates the adrenaline, the fun. Knoxville is predominantly known for the racetrack, the sprint car races, so this adds to that.

How do you want to grow its presence in the community and Central Iowa?
I want to grow from a flight school perspective, because our heart and soul is general aviation. To have these kids, to be able to completely change the trajectory of their entire life is important, and somebody has to do it. We have the wherewithal, we have the passion to do it. I did a career day at the local high school here a couple months ago. These are kids who sign up for aviation, and I asked how many kids, how many of you guys, know that there's an airport right down the street? Two kids. How many know that you can start your professional pilot career path right here in Knoxville? Not a single one. That's important that kids know that. It's important that we are more, we have a stronger presence in the community. I want to do a big fundraiser for a local organization where people run the runway. There's a lot of fundraising opportunities that the airport can be utilized for to support our local community. We can be used more as a tool, more of an asset instead of a draw.

How do you think growing the airport’s presence will affect Knoxville’s economic development?
Airports will always tend to have a quite large economic impact on any community that they serve. Knoxville’s economic impact is about $4 million a year, but if we grow the airport, grow hangar space, that would grow corporate companies that could potentially move in here. You can't rejuvenate an airport without flying airplanes. That's another big thing, is getting every airplane on the airport flying again. That does promote activity. It generates fuel cells, it generates taxes. Even from a hotel standpoint, we own a maintenance shop, we have pilots who will fly in here and stay at the hotels, they're eating at our restaurants, drinking at our bars or staying in our hotels. Growing the airport touches every part of the city and surrounding communities too.

Hy-Vee Inc. awarded $50,000 to minority- and woman-owned businesses during the Hy-Vee OpportUnity Inclusive Business Summit at the University Club in downtown Moline, Ill.

During the pitch competition, 14 companies from across the Midwest presented to a panel of judges and more than 200 event attendees. Company leaders were able to demonstrate their product or explain their service for the chance to win a small-business grant from Hy-Vee.

A Hy-Vee committee selected the participating companies from more than 70 applications.

Joy Hankins, founder of the Joy of Curls in Des Moines, received the grand-prize award of $30,000. First-place, $5,000 winners in various categories included Amanda Colanino, founder and owner of DogGurt (food and beverage) in Bellevue, Neb.; Allison Strickland, founder of ATStudy Buddy (Innovation and Technology) in North Liberty, Iowa; and Abby Schlueter, founder and owner of Love Always, Abby (Health, Wellness and Beauty) in Quincy, Ill. Sensiil Studios in Des Moines and Desserts by Design in Ottumwa received smaller cash prizes for their businesses.

The very real impact menopause has on women’s advancement in the workplace: A new study shows that most women do not feel supported at work around their menopause needs, which can directly affect their career trajectories, according to MSNBC. The study found that approximately 47% of women experienced menopause-related symptoms – like hot flashes, insomnia, brain fog and depression – that “sometimes” to “consistently” disrupted their daily lives. Yet, when asked about support, less than 40% said they received it, with the greatest support coming outside of work. And only 26% of women said they received support from formal work policies or programs. Women in senior leadership were particularly affected.

(Editor’s note: The following story contains descriptions of child abuse and medical abuse. I am including the story because it also contains the best writing I have read in 2023. The story of Evy Mages might help other women and girls find the courage to explore the truths about their own families, their childhoods and the trauma that can affect a person for a lifetime. – Nicole Grundmeier)

A photojournalist discovers her roots, which include a villa where a doctor experimented on her and other children: One night in March, 2021, Evy Mages, a photojournalist in Washington, D.C., opened her laptop and, with trembling fingers, typed into Google the address of a villa in Innsbruck, Austria. For decades, Evy, who was 55, had been haunted by memories of the house, where she had been confined for several months, starting when she was 8. She could still picture its pale-yellow exterior and the curved staircase and dark-wood paneling inside, but she’d kept what happened there a secret — even from a therapist whom she’d credited with saving her life. Evy’s memories of the place had become dreamlike, simultaneously vivid and vaporous. She remembered being wrested from bed in the middle of the night at the home of her foster family. She was hustled into a stranger’s car and driven through the mountains to Innsbruck. Nobody told her what kind of place the villa was, or how long she’d stay, according to the New Yorker.

For these women, motherhood opened the door to new careers: Motherhood can create challenges at work, but for some, it generates better opportunities, according to the Washington Post. Women are much more likely than men to adjust their work lives to accommodate family life, one study showed. The Post recently profiled several women who changed careers after parenthood. After struggling to breastfeed her baby, a nurse quit her job and started a business that helps Black women breastfeed – Milky Mama. After a baby and a pandemic, another woman, a Montessori school teacher, started a business that uses Montessori principles to help families purge and organize their homes – Little Nest. A third woman left her engineering career and started a nonprofit to help children like her daughter, who was born prematurely. Her daughter has cerebral palsy and other diagnoses. She started Partners in Promise, an organization that protects the rights of military children in special education. More women entrepreneurs are profiled in the story.

Latina child care providers see America headed for a crisis: Latinas are more likely to be child care providers and to have children in the home who need care. The end of federal funds could hit them hard, according to the 19th. The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021, included $24 billion in new grants to child care centers to stabilize the industry. But those subsidies were always intended to be temporary, and the last of that largest pot of federal funds expired Saturday. Over 70,000 child care centers could close, according to one estimate, which would lead to 3.2 million children losing access to child care. Already, many parents have had to cut back their hours or leave the workforce due to a lack of child care options and high costs. More child care closures threaten to further escalate those difficult choices for families — and Latinx families and providers are poised to be especially hard hit. “It’s a serious crisis that the U.S. is just creeping toward,” said Xochitl Oseguera, vice president of advocacy group MomsRising and its Spanish-language arm, MamásConPoder. “And a child care crisis that can be avoided.”

What America can learn from Canada’s ‘$10 a Day’ child care system (Washington Post). The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is back — but not as you know it (CNN). Women of the sea: Afro-descendants honor their heritage in Mexico (NPR). Sha’Carri Richardson’s hair sends a defiant message (the Atlantic). America’s Black cemeteries and 3 women trying to save them (New York Times). Planned Parenthood takes back accusation city of Des Moines used eminent domain to acquire book sale warehouse (KCCI).

This month, a video of an unheralded Drake University women’s soccer player went viral.

Zoey Mahoney scored a goal by executing a perfect flip before a long throw-in. Mahoney told the Des Moines Register that she was trying to pass to a teammate, but this throw ended up in the net for the freshman’s first college goal, and then fame on ESPN shows and “Good Morning America.”

You can watch a video of Mahoney’s unlikely goal here.

I knew Mahoney as a Junior Olympic (J.O.) gymnast at Sapphire Gymnastics Academy in Urbandale, where I used to coach gymnastics. I didn’t know she played soccer.

The skill is not really a flip. It’s a front handspring. An athlete sprints, hurdles and then drives one leg straight up behind her as she reaches for the ground, her spine arching tightly. The athlete then blocks (pushes) with her shoulders as her hands contact the ground, ultimately springing forward and rebounding.

Over my years as a gymnastics coach, I’ve had kids ask me to teach them a flip throw-in. My answer is always no. I barely know anything about soccer. And something about the skill always unnerved me – instead of blocking off the floor, like a gymnast, a soccer player is blocking off the ball. A sphere. A moving, slippery sphere. It seems like there is a lot that could go wrong, especially for an athlete who doesn’t have a strong front handspring.

Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from Mahoney is that children shouldn’t have to specialize in just one sport – and that skills learned in one sport or one job can often translate easily to another.

Mahoney isn’t the only former gymnast who is excelling at Drake in a seemingly unrelated sport. Basketball star Katie Dinnebier competed at Chow’s Gymnastics in West Des Moines. Mahoney’s soccer teammate, Hannah Olson, is also a former Chow’s competitive gymnast.

Let the kids play all the sports that they’re interested in exploring. And gosh, Mahoney has convinced me to let the especially fearless athletes learn that soccer flip throw-in.

– Nicole Grundmeier, Business Record staff writer

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