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 Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...

. She was a veteran of the Korean War.

Early life and education

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. 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she became a Rosie the Riveter and tested out steel drums. In May of 1949, Shadduck joined the Women's Army Corps and later served in the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Under the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

, Shadduck earned her BS in Physical Education from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. She graduated with honors. She later earned her MA and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

Career

In 1967, Shadduck was hired by

to lead up their women's

program. She created programs for women's swimming, tennis, and badminton, including hiring women to coach them. She was responsible for hiring Drake's first women's basketball coach and their first women's athletic director. 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. She is credited as being one of the main drivers in changing Iowa's women basketball competitions to conform to national standards. 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". 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. Based on this experience, Shadduck enrolled in law school and passed the Iowa Bar exam in January 1977 on her first attempt. 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. Shadduck was a founding member of the Iowa Women Attorneys Association. She also served for 12 years on the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and was a leader in the Older Women's League. In 2008, she called out the media for the negative attention given to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Death and legacy

Shadduck passed away on May 7, 2022. She is buried in Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter, Iowa. Shadduck is remembered for her activism on

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

and as someone who "used every arena she worked in to champion equality". Shadduck described herself as a " radical feminist". In 2019, Shadduck was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadduck, Ione Genevieve 1923 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century people from Wisconsin American sports coaches American women's rights activists Drake University Law School alumni Iowa Women's Hall of Fame Inductees Michigan State University alumni United States Army personnel of the Korean War University of Wisconsin alumni Women's Army Corps soldiers