Female leaders across Iowa have responded for the first leadership summit targeting issues of bias they may face in the state.

About 200 people from throughout Iowa have already registered for the first Iowa Women’s Leadership Summit, which is part of the Advancing Women Leaders events sponsored by the University Committee on Women and many other campus groups and committees.

An overwhelming pre-registration response for the event underlines the need for this type of event, an organizer said.

“We’re hoping for it to become an annual event. It looks like we’re going to have a wonderful turnout,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

The summit, which is to be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, will feature Angela Oh, civil rights attorney and public speaker from California. Oh will present her speech “Leadership for the 21st Century.” She is also scheduled to participate in a roundtable discussion on women’s leadership issues.

Mary Chapman, vice president of Des Moines Area Community College’s community and workforce partnerships division, said she sees the summit as an opportunity to get some sort of insight from previous successes or failures. Chapman is one of the local women leaders who will join Oh on the panel for roundtable discussion.

“It can be an affirming kind of experience,” she said. “Students can compare their own goals to those of women on the panel and see that they are possible.”

Bystrom is credited with initiating the event but said it was made possible through the collaboration of many different organizations on campus interested in women’s leadership. The idea of a summit was first considered at a retreat for the University Committee on Women, she said.

“We all realized that many institutions in Iowa don’t have enough strong leadership from women,” said Susan Carlson, associate provost. “We thought that if we talked about this situation across groups, we could do more to change the situation.”

Carlson will deliver opening remarks and goals at the summit.

The event is especially important for Iowa State because it is below the national average in the percentage of females on campus, said Penny Rice, coordinator of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.

A shortage of women in strong leadership positions at Iowa State is also an issue that needs to be addressed, she said.

“We need to adjust the measuring stick for what a leader is,” Rice said. “The world has changed, and we need to prepare our institution for that. We also need to prepare our students for that.”

Following the roundtable discussion, summit attendees will choose breakout groups in order to take part in smaller discussions. They can choose from groups discussing women’s leadership roles in business, science, education, politics and public service.

Organizers and discussion leaders said the summit is a step toward breaking biases that women face in the workplace and encouraging women to take on leadership roles.

The summit is free and open to the public, although pre-registration is encouraged, Bystrom said. A reception will follow the scheduled events to encourage discussion and networking between participants and speakers.

“Some people say that there is a feeling that women can only achieve a certain status within an organization,” Chapman said. “It’s unfortunate that in 2005 [women] are still facing firsts.”