Minnette Doderer (1923-2005) had a fifteen-year career as a member of the Iowa state legislature, where her commitment to equity in the workplace took a number of forms. She advocated for the elimination of sexist language in the Iowa Code, for gender balance in state commissions and gubernatorial appointments, and for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. An organizer and charter member of the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus, she served as the president pro tempore of the Senate for two years, at that time the highest position ever held by a woman in the Iowa legislature. Her legislative activities encompassed gun control, gender equity in health insurance, abortion rights, juvenile justice, and prison reform. Doderer received her BA in economics from the University of Iowa in 1948.
Doderer was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1979, and, ten years later, received the Christine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice. Her papers are housed in Iowa Women’s Archives in the University of Iowa Libraries.
https://humanrights.iowa.gov/minnette-doderer
http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?IWA0008