Ione Genevieve Shadduck | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 28, 1923 |
| Died | May 7, 2022 (aged 98) |
| Resting place | Iowa Veterans Cemetery |
| Education | |
| Occupation(s) | Professor, coach, lawyer |
| Awards | Iowa Women's Hall of Fame |
Ione Genevieve Shadduck was an educator, women's rights activist, and attorney. She is known for advocating for equal pay and her work in physical education at Drake University. She was a veteran of the Korean War.
Shadduck was born in Mattoon, Wisconsin on October 28, 1923. She grew up on a farm, attending a one-room schoolhouse for her elementary education. [1]
Her first job was at a local electric company, where she asked for equal pay and was refused, leading her to quit. During World War II, she became a Rosie the Riveter and tested out steel drums. [2] In May of 1949, Shadduck joined the Women's Army Corps and later served in the Korean War. [1]
Under the G.I. Bill, Shadduck earned her BS in Physical Education from the University of Wisconsin. [3] She graduated with honors. [4] She later earned her MA and PhD from Michigan State University. [3]
In 1967, Shadduck was hired by Drake University to lead up their women's physical education program. She created programs for women's swimming, tennis, and badminton, including hiring women to coach them. [5] She was responsible for hiring Drake's first women's basketball coach and their first women's athletic director. [6]
Shadduck lobbied the school's athletic department to transition Drake's women's basketball from six-on-six to the traditional five-player teams. At the time, only Iowa and Oklahoma still restricted women to playing the six-by-six variant of the game, and Shadduck argued that this was incorrectly based on the idea that "girls could only run half a court... (and) couldn’t throw that far." She also argued this made it harder for women to get college basketball scholarships without five-player experience. [5] She is credited as being one of the main drivers in changing Iowa's women basketball competitions to conform to national standards. [7] Shadduck also argued for more female hires and better pay equality, saying that: "While Iowa was ahead of other states, sexism continues in the number and salaries of women coaches and in media coverage". [8]
Shadduck created a coordinated physical education program for men and women at Drake, but the leadership position of the new program was assigned to a man. She filed a discrimination lawsuit against Drake, which was eventually settled. [5] Based on this experience, Shadduck enrolled in law school and passed the Iowa Bar exam in January 1977 on her first attempt. [1] She was known for pioneering the practice of getting expert testimony from economists to assess the economic value of a homemaker in a marriage for divorce cases. [3]
Shadduck was a founding member of the Iowa Women Attorneys Association. [9] She also served for 12 years on the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and was a leader in the Older Women's League. [10] In 2008, she called out the media for the negative attention given to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary. [11]
Shadduck died on May 7, 2022. She is buried in Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter, Iowa. [10]
Shadduck is remembered for her activism on women's rights [1] and as someone who "used every arena she worked in to champion equality". [5] Shadduck described herself as a "radical feminist". [12]
In 2019, Shadduck was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame. [2]