University Daily Kansan, September 30, 1983
Page 11
They've come a long way, Branson says
Women in Kansas Legislature discussed
By SUSAN WORTMAN Staff Reporter
The T-shirt said, "Women belong in the house and in the Senate, too." The members of the League of Women Voters laughed, but the T-shirt could not have been more appropriate for
Jessie Branson
Stephen Phillips/KANSAN
women in the Kansas Legislature, a Kansas legislator said yesterday afternoon.
At a meeting of the Lawrence chapter of the League of Women Voters, State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, told the members that
they had come a long way since women had first pushed for suffrage rights.
Kansas was one of the first states in the nation to grant women the right to vote. Branson said to about 40 women, he would serve on her nomination serving in the Kansas Legislature.
A LARGER PERCENTAGE of women serve in the Kansas Legislature than in the U.S. Legislature, Branson said. Women constitute 14 percent of the Kansas Legislature, but only 13.3 percent of the Congress.
Although the Kansas percentage is higher than most, Branson said, only fifty women have served in Kansas — 26 Republicans and 24 Democrats. And only six women have ever served in the Kansas Senate.
The first women to serve in the Legislature came from small, rural communities. Branson said. Women were among the first to urbanize urban parts of Kansas until the 1970s.
No woman represented Topeka until 1972, and the first woman representative from Kansas City was elected in 1982. Branson said.
NO DOUGLAS COUNTY woman had ever served in Topeka until 1880, when three were elected. Betty Jo Charlton, from Burlington, served to the Kansas House in the same year.
"Women have had a low image of
'Branson said that is why we
leave us."
Another reason women shied away from running for office was that being politically involved was not socially acceptable, Branson said. Women were
not supposed to live away from their families or travel without their families. And they were not supposed to be involved in anything happening politically, she said.
"During my campaign, the Kansas City Star wrote a story on some of the more interesting or hotter races," Branson said. "In the story, they kept referring to me as a middle-aged woman, and somehow someone who had been catapulted into office because of my hard work and efforts," she said with a laugh.
THE FIRST REFERENDUM on women's voting rights was presented to Kansan voters in 1867, Branson said. In 1912, eight years before the 19th amendment was added to the U.S. Kansan women earned the right to vote.
In 1918, Minnie Grinstead, R-Liberal, became the first woman elected to the Knesset.
During Grinstead's second year in the House, the first woman Democrat was elected to the House. Nellie Cline of Virginia is one of the leading agricultural and judiciary committees.
She was a forerunner for other women, Branson said. Her husband and children even came to Topeka to live with her during her two terms.
Katie O'Loughlin, D-Hays, was the first Kansas woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1932, Branson said. Cline and Katie O'Loughlin to the House in the 1930s.
"FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT swept Kansas in that election and he was a
Democrat, so Katie probably rode in on his courtiers', Branson said in 1934. The former minister had been a friend of
Women were mostly seen in the Legislature when they filled the holes left by the deaths of their husbands, Branson said.
Branson said that she also had probably lost because of FDR. He was so unpopular by 1934 that anyone connected with him became unpopular, too.
During the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the number of women in politics increased, Branson said. In those years, both the League of Women Lawyers and National Women's Political Caucus encouraged women to run for office, she said.
Now that women have gotten their feet in the legislative door, they are pushing women's issues harder, too. LAST SESSION, the rape bail bill rescinded the law made it illegal for a woman to be sexually assaulted by her husband.
Branson also said that women tended to work on appropriations for the poor.
to work on appropriations for the poor:
"That is because we are aware that poverty impacts women harder," Branson said. Women and children will be 100 percent of the poverty population by the year 2000 if trends continue at the present rate, according to a state study that Branson quoted.
Branson also said that women legislators seemed to support nursing home bills because more than 80 were nursing home residents were women.
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Victims gain $2.6 million in largest dioxin settlement
By United Press International
ST. LOUIS — A distributor of chemicals will pay a total of $2.6 million to four people in what is believed to be the largest settlement in the United States to victims of the earthquake, a newspaper said yesterday.
The payments will be made by Independent Petrochemical Corp. in an-out-court settlement reached Wednesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The agreement ended three suits scheduled for a joint trial next week.
A jury in Madison County, Ill., last year awarded more than $1 million each to 47 railroad workers exposed to but that worker is being appealed.
THE PAYMENTS IN the Independent case will be made to two sisters and a couple associated with two horse stables sprayed in 1971 with dioxin-tainted waste oil. The actions of Missouri's waste hauler Russell Bliss, whose actions are linked to 24 of Missouri's 33 confirmed dioxin sites.
Independent settled for $1 million each with Lori and Andrea Piatt, sisters who live near Wright City, the newspaper said. The company also agreed to pay $000,000 to bushid Pau, of New Bloomfield, husband Paul of New Bloomfield.
"Both children absolutely plan not to have any children," Piatt said.
Pitt said Lori, now 23, and Andrea, 18, developed disorders of the kidneys, bladder and heart, and other ailments soon after the doctor did a dozen of horses and hundreds of dogs died at the arena after the spraining.
The Piatt sisters were exposed to dioxin after Bliss sprayed the Shenandoah Stables horse arena near Moscow Mills in May 1971 to control dust. Their mother, Judy Piatt, was co-owner of the arena.
Mrs. Drinkard complained of various illnesses. Her husband was included in the settlement for loss of companionship.
The Drinkards managed the Timberline Stables near New Bloomfield in central Missouri. The Timberline horse arena was sprayed with dioxin-contaminated oil in June 1971.
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