Closure of women’s leadership program causes outcry over anti-DEI action

OKLAHOMA CITY — The closure of a popular women’s leadership program has caused uproar among female officials at the state Capitol and across Oklahoma, who say the governor’s executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion is striking down initiatives meant to improve representation.

The University of Oklahoma announced last week the National Education for Women’s Leadership program, which encourages young women to engage in politics and public policy, will end because of an anti-DEI executive order Gov. Kevin Stitt signed in December. The program has graduated more than 650 female students from 42 colleges since it was founded in 2002.

NEW Leadership’s closure heightened concerns about the fate of state-funded programs meant to empower women and minorities.

“This has far-reaching effects into things that are very important and shape the future of our state and country,” Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn said. “So if the goal is to only make sure that we have young, white men run for every office – young, white, straight, Christian men — then I guess we’re accomplishing our goal. I personally don’t believe that should be the goal for our state.”

Osborn said she was a regular speaker on NEW Leadership panels for the past seven years, starting when she was a Republican lawmaker and committee leader in the state House.

Many others working at the state Capitol and in Oklahoma’s political sphere have ties to the program, either as graduates or volunteers.

Stitt has more women in his Cabinet than any other Oklahoma governor, said his communications director, Abegail Cave.

“To my knowledge, none of them participated in this program,” Cave said. “I don’t think the end of this program will be the end of women in politics in Oklahoma.”

House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, Sen. Carri Hicks and Rep. Mauree Turner were selected for NEW Leadership as college students, and several current and former elected officials, Republican and Democrat, have helped lead its workshops and spoken at its events.

Connecting with female elected leaders had a “huge impact” on Munson, D-Oklahoma City, who came into politics as a racial minority and from a family where no one had run for office.

In 2015, Munson became the first Asian American woman and NEW Leadership graduate elected to the state Legislature.

“I think that’s something that the governor and, quite frankly, Republicans are going to be shocked by when they see so many of us from both sides of the aisle coming together and really calling them out on these decisions that they’re making that are harming programs that are helping women like us be engaged in the process,” Munson said.

Just like NEW Leadership trained them to do, the graduates are looking for a solution, said Leslie Blair, who was part of the inaugural 2002 class. Some have suggested starting a nonprofit to keep the program going.

“This is a very important program, and to lose it would be, I think, devastating,” said Blair, now the director of communications and legislative affairs for the Oklahoma Municipal League.

OU’s Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center, where the program was housed, will explore how to “support the goals of NEW Leadership in ways that are consistent with the executive order,” the center’s director Michael Crespin said when announcing the end of the program.

OU is planning further changes it says are necessary to comply with the executive order.

The university’s Gender and Equality Center will close, and the Multicultural Programs and Services office will change its name, the OU Daily reported.

OU’s DEI office will convert into the Division of Access and Opportunity, and administrators have considered restructuring its programs.

Oklahoma State University rebranded its Office of Institutional Diversity into the Division of Access and Community Impact.

Both universities said they are still reviewing which DEI-related programs could be affected but have pledged not to reduce staffing as a result of the executive order. The University of Central Oklahoma said it hasn’t taken any action yet but is preparing recommendations for compliance.

Stitt’s order prohibits state agencies and public higher education institutions from spending state funds on DEI programs “to the extent they grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another’s.” All state agencies and public colleges must comply by May 31.

The governor claimed last week it was “completely false” that his decree caused the women’s leadership program to end, despite OU citing the executive order as the only reason for it to close.

Stitt said he wants to see more women working in politics and other industries.

“I want to make sure that we promote firstgeneration college students, veterans, kids from low income,” he said during a Friday news conference. “All I said is don’t make it based on race.”

Tulsa-based political consultant Mandy Winton Giessmann said she worried over the executive order since it was signed, but it still came as a shock to learn it would cause the end of NEW Leadership, where she had volunteered for 14 years.

Her connection with the program started in 2006 when she gave the participants a tour of the state Capitol, where she worked as a legislative assistant. She returned each year ever since, more recently helping with the political campaign simulation workshop.

“This is a program that has meant so much to me, as a volunteer, and it’s meant so much to these young women, and it’s gone,” Winton Giessmann said. “One of the things that was great about this program is it brought such a diverse group of women.

“They were from all over the state. So, it was so cool to see each person bring their personal experiences to the table. And that’s something that is so important.”

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.