Emphasis on Iowa’s female leaders
DES MOINES – Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds announced Feb. 23 that she is embarking upon a statewide tour to celebrate “National Women’s History Month” in March. The Lt. Governor will be traveling to several communities to meet with female leaders and highlight how women are positively impacting Iowa with their ideas, actions and ingenuity.
“This year’s national theme for Women’s History Month is ‘Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives.’ Every year, during my travels to all 99-counties in Iowa, I witness first-hand how women are making a difference in their homes, businesses, schools, and communities,” said Lt. Governor Reynolds. “Women have played an important role in Iowa’s history and will continue to be trailblazers who serve as role models for current and future generations of Iowans.”
As part of her “Stories of Women’s Lives Tour,” the Lt. Governor will be traveling to Webster City, Aldin, and Atlantic, to name just a few communities during March. The Lt. Governor will use the hashtag #KimTours99 during her travels across the state.
Joining Lt. Governor at the news conference was Renee Hardman, who is principal owner of Hardman Consulting and a 2014 inductee into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. She spoke on the importance of women making positive impacts on lives, especially through their actions.
“Women play a critical role in helping other women. As a woman, who was raised by a single parent along with two other sisters, it was female role models – like my mom and my aunts – who helped shape me into the strong, civic-minded person that I have become,” shared Hardman.
She went on to say, “Women need to see role models who have overcome barriers and who face challenges and have made it, in spite of all. Our life is not measured by the jobs we have or the money we have in the bank, but by the lives we touched.”
According to Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder, chair of the National Women’s History Project, sharing stories about the lives of individual women is critically important.
“The stories of women’s lives, and the choices they made, encourage girls and young women to think larger and bolder, and give boys and men a fuller understanding of the female experience. Knowing women’s achievements challenges stereotypes and upends social assumptions about who women are and what women can accomplish today.”
In 2015, the Women’s History Movement and the National Women’s History Project are celebrating their 35-year anniversaries. For more information about the National Women’s History Project, visit www.nwhp.org.
