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Young women who haven’t bumped against the glass ceiling might want to send a thank-you to these women, to name just a few:

Mary Kramer is a former president of the Iowa Senate, a former U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and current president of Kramer & Associates.

Dianne Bystrom is director of Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women & Politics, and in that role spends much of her time unearthing data that reveal the existence of that glass ceiling.

Roxanne Conlin runs a Des Moines law firm that specializes in punching legal holes through the glass ceiling. Laws are in place to eliminate the glass ceiling, but someone has to make certain they are followed. She is also a former Iowa gubernatorial candidate and U.S. attorney.

Mary Gottschalk, owner of MCG Strategic Services, has used her financial savvy and somewhat atypical approach to career and life to step through or around the glass ceiling.

Carolyn Helmlinger is CEO and president of Mid-America Group, a West Des Moines-based real estate conglomerate. Helmlinger picked a career in real estate because it guaranteed equal pay. While growing up, the choices suggested to her included becoming a nurse, teacher or nun.

Mary O’Keefe is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Principal Financial Group Inc. She encourages her young co-workers to press for all they can get out of their careers, and is somewhat surprised when they wonder “why all the fuss” about a glass ceiling.

The six women led an hour-long discussion June 16 about the glass ceiling, which for a couple of generations, anyway, provided women who dared to dream big dreams of career advancement a view of C-level corporate positions but rarely access to them.

Kramer, who was recently elected to the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame, moderated the discussion, which was part of the Business Record’s Power Breakfast series. More than 200 people registered for the event, generating the largest crowd in the history of the series. Women outnumbered men about 9 to 1.

Those numbers are way out of whack when comparing wages and salaries, the number of women who control medium-sized and large companies (only 11 women lead Fortune 500 companies), and even the number of women that Iowa voters have sent to Congress. That number, by the way, is 0, the same number of women who have been elected governor of Iowa. The latter numbers place Iowa in the exclusive company of Mississippi.

“We can’t continue to be in the same category as Mississippi. Forgive me if you’re from Mississippi, but Mississippi, no,” Conlin said.

The political numbers tend to reveal something about the state and its attitude toward women. Iowa ranks in the bottom half of states in terms of the number of women elected to the legislature and it is scrapping bottom in terms of pay equity.

Conlin noted that when she ran for governor in the 1980s, she enjoyed campaigning and meeting people who were “doing the best they could in every way,” people who reflected the state’s traditional values. They were also people who did not vote for her.

“I was stepping out of a traditional role,” she said.

Bystrom said Iowa’s political history is typical of states that are more rural than urban, more conservative than liberal, have a tradition of religious fundamentalism and have an older population. She also noted that the lack of political opportunities for women is an issue best addressed by the major political parties.

On the other hand, Kramer observed that “maybe a governor is in the room,” and Gottschalk noted that she recently interviewed a young woman who flatly stated, “I’m going to be a governor.”

The political talk illustrated the challenges confronting women in politics and business, as well as the attitudes needed to confront the challenges.

One of those challenges is working and raising families, the two jobs that women confront while building a career.

Helmlinger noted that while men focus on climbing the corporate ladder, she feels as though she is climbing a “jungle gym,” reaching for the many rungs that make up her career, family, church and community obligations.

Other cultural influences affect the decisions women make about their careers, as well as personal decisions.

Gottschalk’s career has included work for Fortune 500 companies. At one point, she decided to step back from her profession and sail the oceans; then she wrote a book. She encouraged a creative approach to building a career and noted that whenever she bumped against a glass ceiling, she simply switched jobs.

It is crucial for women to aggressively negotiate their salaries, as she has done, she said, noting that many women simply accept the pay they are offered, while men are more inclined to argue for higher pay.

Gottschalk said that when she moved here from New York to take the position of senior vice president at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, she was asked what her salary should be.

She did some research, set a figure and got what she asked for.

Bystrom said that she encourages young women who go through her leadership program to read “Women Don’t Ask,” which notes that men negotiate about four times as often as women, that women will pay as much as $1,353 more in order to avoid negotiating the price of a car, and that when asked to pick a metaphor for the process of negotiating, women chose “going to the dentist.” By failing to negotiate a first salary, women could lose as much as $500,000 in income by the time they are 60, according to the book.

Unease about negotiating salary and title could be swept away if women brought the key ingredient of confidence into their work life, many on the panel said.

Helmlinger described confidence as an “aura” that surrounds you.

In addition, she said, women should announce that they are ambitious.

“Tell somebody, ‘I want to grow; I’m looking for the next promotion,'” she said.

Many of the women said there were few women to act as mentors or role models when they started their careers. The lessons were to be tough, competitive, single-minded and self-centered.

Helmlinger said she has placed communication and collaboration at the top of the list of qualities women should bring to a leadership position. “If you’re driving the bus, you need a backup driver; you need passengers on that bus with you,” she said.

Conlin noted that though she has a reputation for being impatient, it would be a mistake for women to sacrifice their integrity in order to advance. She cautioned against “stepping on fingers” and engaging in a corporate culture of “backbiting, lying, stealing.”

Gottschalk offered another piece of advice in making career choices.

“It’s not enough to be good; you have to love it,” she said.