Missouri women vastly underrepresented in appointed boards and commissions, research shows

Even though women make up more than half of Missouri’s population, they only represent about 37% of the state’s appointed boards and commissions members.

That’s according to new research findings from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and United Women’s Empowerment (United WE) in Kansas City.

UMSL’s Anita Manion, one of the lead researchers on the work intensive project, said some of the biggest barriers for women was access to information about these boards and commissions processes.

“We encourage those in your network to seek appointment and I'll be honest, as I've been working on this project, I thought maybe I should look into this kind of service," she said. "Why am I not doing this?"

But women also face more barriers to gaining those typically uncompensated positions due to lack of access to transportation and child care.

The research involved the team determining how many women held appointed positions by scouring municipal websites, making phone calls and sending emails. Researcher Jake Shaw said he was shocked to see how unavailable a lot of municipal data is.

“I think the fact that many Missourians are unable to see who serves the community, much less, the boards that serve them kind of perpetuates a cycle of gender and ethnic misrepresentation," he said.