My entire life, the women around me have lamented growing older. There was the refusal to reveal one’s age. The expensive products that claimed to brighten and tighten every inch of a woman’s body. The longing for the energy and ability to move that had dissipated over the years. The Read more…
Compiled by Macey Shofroth and Emily Barske Wood Nearly 500 people, a record number, shared with us their thoughts about the status of gender equity in Iowa. The Business Record has published its annual survey on women’s and gender issues as part of our Fearless initiative for the last several Read more…
Event details:Thursday, April 17 | Noon to 1 p.m. | Virtual | Register for free The 2024 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses Report showed that women-owned businesses employ almost 12.2 million people and that the number of women-owned businesses between 2019 and 2023 increased at nearly double the rate of those owned Read more…
By Mollie Giller Sometimes you learn about compounding interest in the hardest of ways. Despite having a pretty good understanding of my personal finances and how to manage them (or so I thought), at the end of 2019 I found myself underwater in credit card debt, feeling like Sisyphus every Read more…
Early in her career as a firefighter, Pleasant Hill Fire Chief Jamie Lee hadn’t envisioned herself leading the department. But the former chief of the Pleasant Hill Fire Department told her she was going to be a fire chief someday. “I laughed at him. I’m like, ‘Nope, not me. You’re Read more…
Shane and Jackee Austerman with their children, Isaiah and Elizabeth. Contributed photo. Shane and Jackee Austerman’s children, Isaiah, 15, and Elizabeth, 12, were born with phenylketonuria, or PKU, a rare genetic disorder where the body is unable to produce an enzyme that breaks down the amino acid phenylalanine. Their diagnoses Read more…
In February, the African American Museum of Iowa named Jacqueline Hunter as its new executive director. Hunter joined the museum in August 2024 as museum educator with vast experience in education and history. She began her career as a recreation director in central Florida before going into teaching. She began a Read more…
The Iowa Women’s Foundation is dedicated to combating six major barriers to women’s financial self-sufficiency — transportation, housing, child care, education and training, employment, and mentoring. A statewide tour in 2016 revealed child care to be the barrier most pressing to Iowa families. “If you don’t have child care, you can’t Read more…
Akwaaba is a common greeting in the Akhan language used in Ghana. It means “welcome.” The phrase perfectly embodied what Nana Ouro-Agoro hoped to support in the Quad Cities — a welcoming place for all. Ouro-Agoro is the founder of Akwaaba QC, a nonprofit that supports immigrants and refugees from Read more…
By Heather Kriener As the financial literacy director for the Iowa Department of Insurance and Financial Services, I’m proud to lead initiatives like the SmartHer Money program, which empowers Iowa women to make informed and confident financial decisions. My passion for financial literacy stems from my early career work with Read more…