What does it really mean to be a woman? With the ever-changing roles, rights and identities of women in society, there are as many answers to that question as there are women in the world. We asked different women across the state to share what womanhood means to them today.
These interviews are part of IPR's new season of Unsettled, a podcast that explores different aspects of womanhood.
Teresa Zilk
Teresa Zilk is the creator, producer and curator of Stories to Tell my Daughter, the Iowa storytelling experience that centers on the lived experiences of African American women and women of color.
Zilk is also a mental health advocate and the owner of Teresa Zilk Creative Consulting, a creative consulting company that helps individuals and organizations use the power of story and discovery.
She said that, to her, being a woman means honoring the activists who came ahead of her.
“Being a woman, to me, means understanding that I stand on the shoulders of all the women who came before me and those women who laid the foundation for who I am with their activism, with their belief in autonomy, with their right, with their belief and their right to claim their own bodies, the right to claim their freedom and to find it for themselves," she said.
“It's strength, it's beauty, it's honor and it's knowing that I always have the freedom to be myself regardless of the circumstances that surround me.”Teresa Zilk
Nora J.S. Reichardt
Nora Reichardt is a digital producer for WQAD in Davenport. Before WQAD, Reichardt was a 2021 graduate of Drake University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and an on-air reporter for WOI-ABC5 television in West Des Moines.
As a trans woman, Reichardt said the question "what is a woman?" is one that gets asked of her a lot by critics of her identity, and can be loaded.
"That's so sad for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is that it really limits the opportunity for exploring what womanhood actually means when you're someone who, speaking from my own personal experience, is learning it later in life."
Reichardt said she spent the better part of 20 years trying to perform masculinity and manhood in the way society expected.
“When I finally came to accept that I was trans and I was working on my transition, it has opened avenues for me to explore new parts of myself that feel so much more true to who I am," she said.
“Womanhood is not a finite resource, and celebrating what makes me a woman and my femininity and the experiences that I've gotten to have since coming out as trans in no way diminishes the experiences that many cis women have had that have been really formative in their understanding of their identities.”Nora Reichardt
Dasia Taylor
Dasia Taylor is a 20-year-old inventor and technology innovator who gained national recognition in high school for inventing a suture capable of identifying developing infections.
Named Iowa's Woman of the Year in 2023, she has been featured on prominent platforms including PBS NewsHour, CNN and The Washington Post.
She says it's challenging sometimes, as a woman, to overcome predetermined boundaries to success.
“It's just really difficult to try to navigate the societal obstacles that are thrown at you for no reason at all just because someone said so. That's really difficult to manage," she said.
“To me, being a woman in today's world kind of means being strong in environments that aren't really made for you.”Dasia Taylor
Ghinwa Alameen
Ghinwa Alameen is an associate teaching professor of Arabic and the coordinator of the Arabic program at Iowa State University. She holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and technology from Iowa State. Alameen specializes in teaching undergraduate courses on Arab culture and literature.
Her research areas include connected speech and creating online and hybrid language courses. Additionally, she is the advisor of the Arab Student Association at Iowa State University.
She says she doesn't think her perspective of being a woman has changed since she moved to the U.S. from Syria, and she says motherhood plays a big part of her identity.
“My daughter, in the way she is able to express herself, her ideas, her choices — I think my identity as a woman plays a role there," she said.
“For me, being a woman entails holding different roles in my life and in the different spheres that I live in. I have the role of being a mother, a wife, a caretaker of my extended family.”Ghinwa Alameen
Stacy Glascock
Stacy Glascock is a former physician assistant and a survivor of breast cancer. After she was diagnosed in 2015, she chose a double mastectomy, and then to remain flat. Glascock has led support group talks, including talks for the Beyond Pink Team in Cedar Falls. Glascock also enjoys working in social justice.
She said losing her breasts forced her to consider how her physical appearance played into her identity.
“Our patriarchy tells us long hair is feminine — and wearing makeup, and being sexually attractive, and dressing a certain way and the way we speak," she said. "There's all these different... expectations from the world of what we need to do to fit in as a woman in our world. And it's all, it's all B.S. It's just simply not true.”
“I think society wants so much to check boxes as to male and female and what those ideas represent and how they should present in our world.”Stacy Glascock
Ann Friedman
Ann Friedman is a distinguished journalist, essayist and co-author of the best-selling book Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. Her features and essays can be found in publications such as The Cut, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.
Friedman also serves as a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman. Currently, she is working on her next book about modern adulthood, set to be published in 2024.
She said what it means to be a woman is a concept she believes changes much more often than we are taught that it is, that it's a specific question that can be answered many different ways.
“It's hard for us as individuals to think about ‘what is our version of reality, what's our version of woman’?"
She said it's equally challenging to not place our definitions on top of someone else's.
"It might sound like a cop-out to say that this is all specific and fluid and changeable, but that's honestly how I see it," she said. "I think that, maybe a better question is not, 'How do you know you're a woman?' but, 'How are you feeling with the term 'woman' right now?' 'How are you feeling about your womanhood in this moment?'"
“Womanhood has so long and so often been conflated with motherhood.”Ann Friedman
Asha Leena Bhandary
Asha Leena Bhandary is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Her research delves into the philosophical implications of unjust caregiving arrangements, while balancing the cultural significance of care.
Bhandary also teaches courses in applied ethics and social justice and advises graduate students in political philosophy and feminist ethics.
She says when it comes to identity, she doesn't argue for the ideal of one coherent conception of self that enables a person to rank priorities and proceed.
"That's an ideal that we see in some autonomy theorists and philosophers who have generally been white men who had a social world that was arranged in a way that kind of worked with their priorities," she said.
“When we're kind of just doing what we want to do in the world and pursuing paths that haven't been the prescribed paths for us, we need to abandon that idea of locking everything into a set of priorities. And instead, we need to freely move between modes to make the whole thing work.”Asha Leena Bhandary
Joshalyn “Rocki” Johnson
Joshalyn Hickey Johnson, also known as Ms. Rocki, is a Waterloo native who spent 30 years at Viking Pump in Cedar Falls before retiring in 2007.
A devoted mother of two, Ms. Rocki transitioned to writing children's books a few years before retirement, drawing from real-life experiences of her children growing up. She also actively engages with her community through initiatives like North End Update, a weekly program showcasing positive aspects of the local community.
In addition to calling herself a "seasoned woman," Johnson identifies as a grandmother, widow, activist, content creator, "motorcycle mama" and gardener.
“I think it's powerful to be a woman, and I think to be a woman in this day and time, you should learn to do your best to walk in the power that you've gained through your life," she said.
“What it means to be a woman today, means to stand in your own power, and realizing who you are as a woman, who you've become and who you've evolved to.”Joshalyn Hickey Johnson
Cheryl “Chaveevah” Banks Ferguson
Cheryl Banks Ferguson, also known as Chaveevah, is originally from Chicago, Ill., but has called Iowa home since the mid-'80s.
Founder of BaHar Publishing in 2003, Chaveevah has published around 70 books spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children’s books.
She is also a prolific illustrator, muralist, former staff writer for the Waterloo Courier and co-host of the popular social media broadcast North End Update since 2017, alongside her best friend, Joshalyn "Ms. Rocki" Hickey Johnson.
She says she describes herself as multifaceted. She's a mother, wife, artist, teacher and storyteller.
She says being a woman can mean whatever you want it to mean.
"It's up to you to put those definers and shake off those constraints, for that matter."
“Constraints or roles that we maybe had to adhere to years ago — decades ago — those are things that are more open for us to define ourselves, especially as you get older, you find you have less and less to prove.”Cheryl Banks Ferguson
Jackie Arreola
Jacqueline Arreola is a business owner in Washington, and has been a proud resident of the city for 16 years. She graduated in 1997 from Johnson & Wales University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.
Committed to community engagement, Jacqueline has actively contributed to various initiatives, driven by her passion for improving people's lives.
She says she considers herself a cheerleader for Latino culture. Since moving to Iowa from New York City, she's learned how powerful it is to be Latina and thrive while carrying both cultures proudly.
“When you have that pride in who you are, you're able to share, you're able to teach and you realize how many people are willing to learn and respect what you bring in to the table," she said.
“To me, being a woman means being like a tree. That no matter what happens, you always going to have fruit, you're going to have a legacy, you're going to survive no matter what.”Jacqueline Arreola
Tea Ho
Theresa Ho is a dedicated microbiologist with over 25 years of experience, focused on bacteria causing diarrhea. She earned her graduate degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and had post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical School.
Beyond research, Ho serves as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa, where she actively promotes diversity and equity in recruitment and fosters an inclusive environment.
She says she sees being a woman as an exciting, powerful thing.
“Becoming a mother was the most life changing thing that had ever happened to me, and it changed my perspective on pretty much everything in my life," she said.
“I love being a woman because I get to do things and think things and be things that I don't think my male counterparts necessarily get a chance or allow themselves to be."Theresa Ho
Phineas Pope contributed to this story.
