Negotiating Ideologies: The Campaign for Gender–Balanced Boards and Commissions in Iowa

ABSTRACT

This interview and archival research case study of the successful movement to adopt state laws to require gender balance on Iowa state boards and commissions (adopted in the late 1980s) and to extend the law to local boards and commissions (adopted in 2009) provides an empirical challenge to two prominent theories of ideology—interest theory, in which the powerful impose ideology, and strain theory, in which people find ideology to cope with their experiences. My study suggests that traditional ideologies are not always the most powerful. While people tend to believe in ideologies they perceive as functional for themselves, ideology is better understood through a navigation theory in which people simultaneously hold multiple complementary and contradictory ideologies, and where particular contexts and people’s interpretations of those contexts impact how different ideologies are activated, understood, prioritized, negotiated, and applied.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• political behavior
• political sociology
• public policy
• social theory

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Cliff Brown, Kabria Baumgartner, Jen Borda, Nicky Fox, and Heather Turner for their guidance and feedback on this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville [COVID-19 Assigned Research Time Award]; Linda and Richard Kerber Fund for Research in the Iowa Women’s Archives; Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs [Women & Politics Fund].

Notes on contributors

Ezra Temko

Dr. Ezra Temko is an applied political sociologist and associate professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. They conduct equity-oriented research with a focus on the change making world of cultural politics, specifically with practical implications for changing symbolic politics, addressing structural power, and realizing social justice.