Michigan is seeing unprecedented female leadership; that's good for government

What a sight.

When Governor Gretchen Whitmer took to the podium to deliver her State of the State Address in January, the second-ever woman governor of Michigan stood in front of the state’s first female Senate majority leader and first Black house speaker as she spoke to a Michigan Legislature containing a record number of women and a record number of openly LGBTQ+ people. This, on the heels of being sworn in for her second gubernatorial term by the first Black woman justice on the Michigan Supreme Court earlier this year.

It was indeed a beautiful sight. But the meaning is so much deeper than just how it looks. Diversity in leadership matters. As Governor Whitmer laid out her vision for the future of Michigan, the elected leaders in that chamber represented a vast array of lived experiences. As much as education, expertise, job history, and skill sets, it’s those lived experiences that help inform the important decisions before the Michigan Legislature. A variety of lived experiences means there are more perspectives on the real-world consequences from those decisions. More perspectives mean more workable solutions for problems that impact people differently.

We’ve seen the difference that bringing different people together has across sectors can make. In business, research has shown that executive teams with greater gender and ethnic diversity have greater profitability. Other studies find that diverse groups are more innovative and productive. In academia, papers written by diverse groups of people with different backgrounds get more citations and more prestige.

Women, in particular, tend to be extremely effective leaders. Studies conducted both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic found that women are rated significantly higher than men at leading during a crisis. A study on Congress found that women legislators secure more federal discretionary money for their districts than men. Decades of research continue to show that women tend to outperform men in areas like transformational leadership, leadership effectiveness, humility, self-control and moral orientation.

That’s why we can’t stop at celebrating the historic numbers of women and LGBTQ+ people in Michigan’s elected leadership. We must continue to recruit more women, more people of color, more LGBTQ+ people, more of the people we know out here in the real world to run for elected office at all levels of government in Michigan. We need to find out what supports they need to be able to run. And then we must provide those supports.

As elected leaders around Michigan – from our state leaders to our school boards – continue to grapple with the great challenges and opportunities before us, a wide diversity of lived experiences and leadership styles will help more of us achieve greater prosperity and success.

Dr. Geneva Williams is the chief executive officer of Dr. Geneva Speaks, LLC, and a commissioner with the Michigan Women’s Commission. Previously, she was the first female executive vice president at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Geneva Williams: Michigan is seeing unprecedented female leadership