Oral History Program Marcia White Interviewed by Jayson Stokes 4 April 2017 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Marcia White Interviewed by Jayson Stokes 4 April 2017 Copyright © 2023 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. 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These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: White, Marcia, an oral history by Jayson Stokes, 4 April 2017, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections and University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Marcia White Circa 2015 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Marcia White of the Ogden City Council. It was conducted April 4, 2017 and concerns her experiences and leadership styles as a women and minority leader. The interviewer is Jayson Stokes. JS: This is an oral interview history with Marcia White of the Ogden City Council conducted by Jayson Stokes on April 4, 2017 in the LGBT Resource Center at Weber State University. We will discuss Marcia’s background and leadership. Thank you very much for joining us today and doing this for us, we really appreciate it. MW: Thank you. JS: We have a list of questions that we will move through. Where I would like you to start, if you would, is please tell us about your background; maybe your childhood, teen years, where you grew up, your hobbies, family values, education, etc.… MW: I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. I always say you can take me out of Nebraska, you just can’t take Nebraska out of the girl. My roots are definitely there, my family is all still there. Both my parents have passed away unfortunately, so it’s my sisters and their families. I have two sisters. I grew up with a great, involved family. My mom worked for the governor of Nebraska. She was his executive assistant and then she went on to run the Lincoln Office when he became a U.S. Senator. My father was very involved in the Democratic Party in Lincoln, so that was my background and understanding growing up. Giving back to the community was very instilled in my childhood. We would have long conversations 1 about politics and what was going on; really debating whatever current events might be at the time. Like a normal kid, we had a lot of debates around our dinner table. I got to do a lot of athletic things; I played softball all through my childhood. I was on a pretty good team. We went to nationals a lot of those years and so I was able to be in front of a lot of people as far as being on winning teams. JS: What experience did you have in childhood, teen years, or adult years that led you to believe that you were or could be a leader? MW: I think it’s interesting to look back at my upbringing. It was more about my parents pushing me into different settings. When you have the governor of Nebraska sitting in your family room because he is your uncle, you learn to step up. You learn to automatically be part of the conversation. I think growing up, it was just instilled that was what I was supposed to do. I was afforded opportunities early on to be in leadership roles. I was a youth person on the parks and recreation advisory committee in our city. I participated in the model United Nations and those kinds of things. I was pushed to do that but I don’t think I would have considered myself a leader. I was just able to do those things. Looking back, I was just afforded the opportunity to be in leadership roles which surrounded me by other leaders. So it just became normal I guess. JS: So what are your core values? How have they influenced your leadership experiences or abilities? MW: I start from a place that I didn’t know that I got to until I was older. Again, not knowing my understanding of being in leadership, but I think my core values start with: everyone at some place is on an equal playing field and sometimes there 2 are people that get to exceed on those playing fields and sometimes those people end up falling off. Starting with the core value that we are all equal and then thinking about, I used this recently, “If not me, then whom?” and because of what I have been afforded, the positions I’ve been in. There are people who need help being brought along and so I think we start with that. We are all on an equal playing field; that is the first thing. The second thing is that everyone is on opposite ends but we all can come to the middle somehow. I always feel that if we are all equal then we all have some compromises. That is my core value; how I usually end up getting to where I need to get. Did I answer the whole question? JS: I believe so. The second part of the question was how they influence your leadership, experience or abilities. MW: Yeah, it is that compromise. It’s realizing that everyone needs to be brought up on the ladder and how do I do that. Whether it is pushing someone up from the bottom or pulling them up from the top. JS: Name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader, maybe someone who has been a mentor to you. Why and how did this person impact your life generally and your leadership abilities specifically? MW: I think most people would probably say their parents. My parents were fantastic influences, but I had a grandma that I would consider a mentor of mine. She was a woman that was out in the forefront when women would not have been in the forefront. She not only ran the household but she also was a woman in business. She was on a lot of boards and committees. It was a similar style to mine; understanding that the aging needed to be cared for and understanding that kids 3 needed education. She was always out on the forefront. She was the president of her business and women’s professional organization at a time when those organizations barely existed. She was not necessarily what people probably would consider a true mentor, like somebody that would take you under their arms and show you the ropes. But she did it by example and I think that was more important to me than necessarily taking me under her arms. I would say my parents pushing me into things that were uncomfortable and things that I didn’t want to do. Even to the point of yelling and screaming when they made me wear a dress, you know those kinds of things. I still wear the shorts underneath, just in case you wanted to know. My grandma was a great example of somebody that was on the forefront in a time when maybe women weren’t supposed to be in the forefront. JS: How do you think that influences your leadership now? MW: Oh, it definitely influences my leadership because I know it is possible. When I know that it is possible, I know that I can do it. I guess I know that she didn’t die being scrutinized. She lived a great life, very old and great all the way up until she did die. I know that if people make fun of me or come after me, it’s that thick skin… it is kind of that sticks and stones can hurt us but…I don’t know how that saying really goes. She taught me that’s okay and that you can just keep persevering. I don’t know if that makes sense but as a woman it was nice. It was just nice to see that and “Oh well, they are talking about me? Whatever.” She would just go down to the next thing. I don’t know how to explain that but I think a lot of times we get hung up on people being mean-spirited and we just have to 4 have that thick skin. I think being a woman is hard because we internalize things too much. Maybe men do too. JS: What do you see as the biggest challenges being a woman or a minority leader in Northern Utah, and what do you do to overcome those challenges? MW: Let me just start by saying that being a woman in Northern Utah is a little difficult. I definitely think there is a religious part. I think the religion here views women differently than men. There is always the challenge: are they not listening to me because I am a woman or are they not listening to me because I am not getting my point across? Oftentimes, I try to get my point across in three or four different ways. I think there is an inherent bias, a gender bias. I think that happens wherever you go, I don’t know that is unique to here but I think there is a religion part that actually plays into that. I have a couple of strikes, if you will, against me; being a lesbian on top of it, I think actually has kind of another bias in itself but kind of in an odd way. I think the bias isn’t actually as bad as if I were a straight woman because I don’t know if there is a nonthreat. I can be friends with both the husband and the wife, there is a nonthreat maybe. I don’t know. There is definitely some bias, there are definitely inequalities as far as even pay and salary and some of the things I see along the way. It is what it is, I guess. That is the unfortunate thing. JS: What advice would you give emerging young women or minority leaders in order to be successful? MW: I would say that the best thing to do is network, and network in every aspect of what you are familiar with and what you are not familiar with. It puts you out there 5 to understand the people that are around you, and what makes them different actually makes us similar. I grew up Episcopal. I’m not a big religious person, as far as continuing my religion out here but to go to an all-Black Baptist Church, for instance; how similar we are in our beliefs in a higher being. It makes me think “Wow, they are just doing the same thing as I’m doing. It’s just a different style of church, right?” Putting yourself out there to read things that are uncomfortable. I’m not a big Fox News person but I listen to Fox News because there are things on both sides I need to understand. So I guess, one is putting yourself out there, networking, meeting new people, and then meeting new people that you are not as comfortable with. I always say finding your inner compass, whatever that is, because your inner truth will help you feel right wherever the situation is. JS: Thank you, do you have any other insights you can share about being a women or minority leader in Northern Utah? Is there anything else you would like to share? MW: Yes, I will tell you. One, we need more women in leadership. The more we are at the table the less uncomfortable it becomes for the men. It just becomes normal. The more they understand you, the more they feel comfortable. My style has been to gently push. Gently push back when needed and really try to not cry wolf. I am very deliberate when I need to be; for instance, in having a hard conversation with you. If I had those conversations all the time, then the hard one or the uncomfortable one would not be as impactful. So, get yourself at the table, put yourself out there, and then just be as open as you can to having people ask you weird questions. 6 JS: Thank you so very much for sharing your insights and your experience and your leadership. MW: You’re welcome. 7