Women in Iowa Politics (Part 3): Could 6 + 6 = 0?

[Commentary] National political reporters looking to get the pulse of rural Iowa often seek out party chairmen or anyone who happens to be standing near a grain elevator.

And truly effete coastal journalists, the variety who for all their Ivied degrees can’t understand the delightful concept of chicken-fried steak, seem intent on finding folks here with hats and putting them on TV.

The viewpoints of all Iowans have merit, to be sure.

But to understand the culture of rural Iowa, the rhythm of life here, it pays to talk high school sports, for even in this latchkey-adult, Internet-addicted, “bowling alone” age, Iowans will still leave the house to pack gyms in the dead of winter.

We go so far as to associate certain towns with sports. Harlan (football). Pomeroy (basketball). Norway (baseball).

Basketball, though, has a special place.

For generations of Iowans, basketball was two different games. The boys played 5 on 5, the way the game stands today at all levels. Hawkeye State girls, on the other hand, went 6 on 6, with defensive and offensive duties split — a format that can be superior to watch from a spectator’s standpoint, but sends a constant subtle gender message to the community of the walking-and-chewing-gum variety.

Does the basketball culture, the notion that we needed to give the girls a less stressful brand of hoops, reveal deep-seeded thinking about women in Iowa, a subordination of the gentler gender for their own good?

Over the years, I've written several pieces devoted to what countless politicians and citizens have called “the vexing question” of why Iowa has never elected a woman to Congress or the U.S. Senate or as governor.

According to The Center for Women in Politics, four states have never elected a woman to federal office: Iowa, Vermont, Delaware and Mississippi.

In Parts I and 2 of this series we’ve examined some socio-economic factors, and other more overt biases, behind this political glass ceiling.

But perhaps much of whatever is at the root of this has to do with a collection of small cultural signals that build over time – like 6-on-6 basketball.

“I think 6-on-6 basketball is actually one of those things that brought the community together,” says Bud Legg, information director for the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

Legg, a former longtime teacher and coach at Ames High School and South Hamilton, says he’s worked with generations of talented young women. He has no explanation for why one of them isn’t in the Congress.
“There are some things that we expect out of our women that we don’t expect out of our men,” Legg said.

Many Iowans take it as a given that women are the primary parents and caregivers and homemakers — and that doesn’t jive with a midnight vote on cloture.

For his part, Legg doesn’t believe the political-gender bias in Iowa rests at the feet of 6-on-6 basketball, which was played until the mid-1990s in the state’s high schools.

But then again, many people read too much into high school sports, he said.

“I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that it is a game,” Legg said.

That said, the scoreboard is what it is. And for women in Iowa, the higher-office count is a flat zero.