OU women’s leadership program eliminated in response to Stitt executive order

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Several female elected officials in Oklahoma are speaking out after the University of Oklahoma eliminated a women’s leadership program in response to an executive order from Governor Stitt that targeted DEI programs.

Last week, the University of Oklahoma (OU) announced its Carl Albert Congressional Research Center would stop hosting a program aimed at getting female students to pursue careers in politics, and other leadership roles.

It has hosted the program for more than two decades.

The university ended the program in response to a 2023 executive order form Governor Kevin Stitt, which banned state agencies from spending public dollars on race or gender-based “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.

Several female elected officials in Oklahoma spoke out in response to the program’s elimination.

Oklahoma State Senator Mary Boren (D-Norman) graduated from OU’s law school.

Her Senate district includes OU’s campus.  

“It's very disappointing but not shocking,” Boren told News 4. “[The program] trained [women] to know how to navigate running for office as a woman. And the challenges that you face as running as a woman for political office and help prepare them for those challenges.”

She says the loss of the OU program is an unintended consequence of Stitt’s executive order that she believes the Governor should have been able to see coming.

“I honestly don't think that he foresaw it,” Boren said. “I think that he shuts down conversations when people try to bring [things] to [his] attention… Because that executive order and the law casts such a large net to try to shut down all of these programs that try to help marginalized people be successful in America, we knew that it was going to capture things that are very mainstreamed that people really like and create safe places for people, for women to be able to navigate areas that they typically have been excluded from.”

Oklahoma State Senator Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma City) released the following statement last week:

“OU’s chapter of NEW Leadership is a bipartisan effort, and for more than 20 years it has helped mentor and prepare hundreds of young women for public service, an area still vastly underrepresented by women. As one of only a handful of women to have held leadership positions in the Legislature since statehood, I believe this program’s elimination is a terrible loss.

“Some of the most transformational policy in our state has been authored by women legislators, including the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program, legislation providing greater access to breast cancer screening, legislation creating the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, and more. Women bring perspectives and ideas to the table that would otherwise not be heard, something we need more of, not less, in government.

“The elimination of the NEW Leadership program is an example of the negative impact Executive Order 2023-31 will have on our state, but I am deeply concerned there will be more.”

“It trained them to know how to navigate running for office as a woman. And the challenges that you face as running as a woman for political office and help prepare them for those challenges.”

State Sen. Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma City)

Governor Stitt responded to Floyd’s comments at his weekly press conference last week.  

“Well, I can you I can assure you I want more women working in politics, more women working in the oil and gas industry,” Stitt told reporters. “So if she's suggesting that I don't want more women working in politics or in oil and gas, that's just that's just completely false.”

He said he didn’t intend that executive order to take aim at programs like that OU program.    

“I would say that the University of Oklahoma didn't cancel any program except for if there's a diversity equity and inclusion program that's basically based on race. Because I've been very clear, I want to make sure that we promote first generation college students, veterans, kids from low income.”