Study reveals Kansas women are underrepresented on “power boards” that have significant influence in local communities
United WE today announced research conducted by the University of Kansas Institute for Leadership Studies about women’s representation on Kansas municipal boards and commissions. Funded by United WE, the research project was conducted as part of the Appointments Project® and Ready to Run Kansas Women’s Leadership Series, which focuses on preparing women to participate on civic boards and commissions and run for political office in Kansas.
The report, “Kansas Municipalities and Gender Balance” revealed that Kansas women are underrepresented on civic boards and commissions, especially on “power boards” that have direct influence on policy making and financial resource allocation such as planning and zoning boards. Of the six most common civic boards and commissions, Kansas women have achieved gender parity on only two: library boards and housing boards, regardless of community size. In fact, while women hold more than two-thirds of the seats on library boards across Kansas, they hold only about one-quarter of the seats on planning and zoning boards.
“Our award-winning Appointments Project® is successfully advancing women’s representation in many communities,” said Wendy Doyle, United WE President & CEO. “As we continue to improve women’s economic and civic empowerment, we know that expanding our Appointments Project® to reach all women will facilitate more women appointments across all boards and will help create a more fair and equitable community for all.”
“Elected officials rely on recommendations from civic boards and commissions to drive informed policies that arguably have the greatest effect on our day-to-day lives,” said Erik Sartorius, Executive Director for the League of Kansas Municipalities. “Boards and commissions play an important role in public policy and it is imperative for women’s voices to be heard at these decision-making tables.”
The next evolution for representation in civic leadership of our communities is to ensure that equal representation must occur on the powerful and influential boards which make critical community decisions, not just the boards that have a more narrow impact on the community and its residents.
“While Kansas women are well represented in some instances, we found that Kansas communities have some work to do,” said Emily Vietti, co-author and partnership director for the Appointments Project and Ready to Run Kansas Women’s Leadership Series. “Increased transparency and accessibility of information about the appointments process will be necessary to move our state toward gender parity on municipal boards and commissions.”
With these key findings in mind, the study seeks to provide a benchmark on the status of gender parity on Kansas’ civic boards and commissions. By providing a look at municipal boards and commissions, these results offer policymakers, elected leaders, and advocacy groups data from which to evaluate their practices in identifying and filling open seats.
The full research study is available here. To learn more about United WE’s Appointments Project® visit www.united-we.org/appointments-project.