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Our Rightful Place: Iowa Women in Politics Oral History Collection
Lloyd-Jones, Jean, 1929-
University of Iowa. Libraries. Iowa Women's Archives
2019/2023
Oral histories with women who have served in statewide or federal elected office representing residents of the state of Iowa. The Our Rightful Place: Iowa Women in Politics oral history collection dates from 2019-2023 and contains 10.6 GB of digital materials. This collection consists of PDF transcripts and audio recordings of oral history interviews with 63 women who have served or are currently serving in the Iowa legislature. The project was conceived by Jean Lloyd-Jones, a co-founder of the organization 50-50 in 2020, which sought to achieve equal representation of men and women in the Iowa legislature by the year 2020. The oral history project originally represented 50-50 in 2020's organizational contribution to Iowa’s statewide Hard Won, Not Done campaign commemorating the 2020 centennial of the 19th amendment. As such, this project was originally referred to as the Hard Won, Not Done oral history of Iowa women legislators. In 2024, its title was changed to Our Rightful Place: Iowa Women in Politics In 2019, the 50-50 in 2020 board, led by Lloyd-Jones, began collecting oral histories with former and current Iowa women legislators -- these are the Phase 1 interviews. Later, Lloyd-Jones arranged for a partnership with the University of Iowa Libraries, which culminated in the endowment of a new staff position charged with conducting new interviews on an ongoing basis -- these are the Phase 2 interviews. In Phase 1 of the project, many interviews were conducted with sitting legislators at the Iowa Capitol on January 14-15, 2020. Jean Lloyd-Jones conducted these interviews herself, while interviews with retired legislators took place in a variety of locations across the state and were conducted by Lloyd-Jones and by other members of the 50/50 in 2020 board. Phase 1 interviews are typically between 5 and 25 minutes long and are structured around a standard set of questions, which included prompts about interviewees’ motivations for seeking public office, major achievements and issues of interest, and campaign experiences. Other questions in this phase explored themes of gender and power in legislative service, querying interviewees about their relationships with other women legislators, opinions on male legislators’ treatment of women colleagues, and reflections on the impact women’s representation has on policymaking. Phase 2 interviews are longer than 25 minutes and, beginning in 2023, are structured by the individual biography of each interviewee rather than a questionnaire. All Phase 2 interviews were conducted by Iowa Women's Archives staff. The collection also includes tributes to prominent women legislators who passed away before the oral history project began, written and narrated by other major figures in Iowa politics. Video clips from these interviews, as well as a database of women in Iowa politics and other resources, are available on the Our Rightful Place project website.
English
Legislators Politicians Women Political activity
2010-2020 2020-2030
United States -- Iowa
Our Rightful Place: Iowa Women in Politics Oral History Collection Our Rightful Place: Iowa Women in Politics oral history collection
IWA1278
https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/4/resources/4378
68 audio files 68 transcripts
Educational use only, no other permissions given. U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this digital object. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Contact the Iowa Women's Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/forms/iwa/
Sound Text
oral histories (literary genre) interviews testimonials biographical sketches sound recordings transcripts
wav pdf
