Iowa

Emerge Iowa recruits, trains, and provides a network for Democratic women who want to run for office.

Madam for America is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping to identify, recruit, train, elect, and appoint Black women at every level of government in the Midwest. 

Women Lead Change is the Iowa's premier leadership organization for women, offering comprehensive leadership resources including events featuring prominent speakers, frequent networking opportunities, and other important services to advance women’s leadership in all aspects of their lives.

Ready to Run® Iowa is a bi-partisan, comprehensive, one-day workshop offered every other year by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Ames and Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University (NJ).  As part of the Ready to Run® National Network, Ready to Run® Iowa offers women an opportunity to hear directly from prominent elected and appointed leaders, campaign consultants, and party officials about how to get ready to run for office or work on a political campaign. 

New Leaders Council (NLC) was formed in 2005 to train and support the next generation of progressive political entrepreneursyoung professionals in their twenties and thirties who are leading industries, setting trends, and building institutions that support robust civic and political life in a global America. NLC accomplishes this mission primarily through the NLC Institute - a political entrepreneurship training program held 10 days over a five-month period that builds local teams of young professionals in 19 cities across the nation.

Founded in 1982, Leadership Iowa is an issues-awareness program promoting leadership within the state. Through monthly two-day sessions over a nine-month period, selected participants explore needs and opportunities within the state while taking advantage of networking opportunities and enhancing civic engagement. Participants come from both the private and public sectors and go on to take leadership roles in business, communities, and government.

Founded in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) is multi-issue, multi-strategy organization that takes a holistic approach to women's rights. The organization's official priorities are winning economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women; championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women's health issues; opposing racism and fighting bigotry against lesbians and gays; and ending violence against women.

Iowa NEW Leadership is an intensive six-day residential institute that develops college womens public leadership skills, supports their engagement in civic life, and creates opportunities for them to build relationships with women involved in public leadership on the local, state, and national levels. 

The Iowa General Assembly passed gender balance legislation (HF 243) in 2009, requiring that all appointive boards, commissions, committees and councils of the state be gender balanced. Gender balance on state-level boards and commissions has been required since 1987, and the 2009 legislation extended this expectation to county and city boards and commissions. This law goes into effect in January 2012.