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Legislators and Politicians: Iowa's Women Lawmakers Suzanne O'dea Schenken Iowa State University

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Legislators and Politicians: Iowa's Women Lawmakers Suzanne O'dea Schenken Iowa State University Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1992 Legislators and politicians: Iowa's women lawmakers Suzanne O'Dea Schenken Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the American Politics Commons, Legal Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation O'Dea Schenken, Suzanne, "Legislators and politicians: Iowa's women lawmakers " (1992). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 10152. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/10152 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9311532 Legislators and politicians: Iowa's women lawmakers Schenken, Suzanne O'Dea, Ph.D. Iowa State University, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Schenken, Suzanne O'Dea. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Legislators and politicians; Iowa's women lawmakers by Suzanne O'Dea Schenken A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department: History Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Approved: Signature was redacted for privacy. Jfi^jSharge of Major Work Signature was redacted for privacy. For th%j Maj or De^rtment Signature was redacted for privacy. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1992 Copyright © Suzanne O'Dea Schenken, 1992. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii INTRODUCTION 1 CANDIDACY 13 LOBBYISTS AND LEADERSHIP 56 LEGISLATORS AND POLITICIANS 79 AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 111 REVENUE ISSUES 143. RIGHTS: EXPANSION AND DEFINITION 165 CHILDREN 191 WOMEN'S ISSUES 216 ABORTION 251 LIFE AFTER THE LEGISLATURE 278 CONCLUSION 284 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 2.92 OTHER SOURCES CITED 297 APPENDIX A. ENTERING MEN'S TERRITORY 302 APPENDIX B. TABLE OF WOMEN SERVING BY SESSION 309 APPENDIX C. JUNE FRANKLIN'S COMMENTS ON ABORTION 316 APPENDIX D. TEXT OF MINNETTE DODERER'S POINT OF PERSON PRIVILEGE 319 APPENDIX E. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF WOMEN LEGISLATORS 321 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Some people regularly affect others' lives in both direct and indirect ways. This work owes great debts to Minnette Doderer. She came into my life through newspaper stories about her activities long before I met her. She championed the Iowa Equal Rights Amendment, the campaign which introduced me to politics. I worked for Doderer for three terms, beginning in 1983. In 1987 she asked me to do an oral history project of the women who had served in the Iowa General Assembly and offered to help find financial support for it. Doderer, lobbyist Joe Kelly, and House members Dorothy Carpenter and Johnie Hammond raised most of the expense money for "A Political Dialogue: Iowa's Women Legislators." I am grateful to them for their faith in me and their support for the project. The women who spent hours narrating their stories, reading them, and correcting them made contributions to Iowa history and women's history, for which I am grateful. Their trust in the process and their generous gifts of their time provided insights that otherwise would not have been available. The forthrightness with which they told their stories allowed fuller and deeper interpretations that otherwise could not have been possible. Knowing the risks that they took in telling their stories, I I hope that I have adequately honored their trust. My thanks to Bonnie Trede who labored over the tape recordings to transcribe them. Her professional standards and her patience have made the transcripts useful tools. Richard S. Kirkendall defended this project when its validity was questioned. Without his defense it might have died a premature death. When Kirkendall left Iowa State University, John Dobson kindly accepted its oversight. Dobson read early interview transcripts and made helpful and constructive suggestions. Dobson's hand also gently guided the development of the interpretation and construction of this work. He asked the difficult questions and helped form the organization of it. In addition to his scholarly talents, his patience and goodwill would well serve any graduate student's adventures. When reading acknowledgements in other works, I have wondered why authors thanked their family members for their support. Now I know. A person who is preoccupied with a subject, who monopolizes dinner conversation with stories about the day's research, and who really wants to get back to the chapter on the computer screen can become a tiresome household companion. Thank you John who stayed home from his work some days so that I could continue mine, Maggie who outgrew having someone read bedtime stories to her while waiting for me to finish my graduate studies, and Bill who resigned himself to having a mom who was different from his friends' mothers. 1 INTRODUCTION When Jackson County, Iowa, voters elected Carolyn Campbell Pendray to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1928, she became the first of almost eighty women to serve in the Iowa General Assembly over the next six decades. Since Pendray's election, women legislators have introduced, advocated, supported, altered, and defeated legislation affecting every aspect of life in Iowa. Some women concentrated their efforts in specific areas such as railroads, juvenile justice, education, marriage and divorce, child labor, civil rights, tax policy, abortion, and colored oleomargarine. Some women found satisfaction in simply being part of the process by observing and voting. Iowa's women legislators have many of the same characteristics as their male colleagues. Beyond having the same legal qualifications for serving in the Iowa General Assembly, both women and men have broad and diverse legislative interests.^ Women and men legislators also share the same variety in levels of activism and leadership. Yet social and cultural differences between women and men suggest that women have somewhat different legislative priorities, perspectives, and opportunities. ^Dorothy Ashby Moncure also noted this diversity in "Women in Political Life," Current History 29 no. 4 (January 1929); 643; also Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, Women in the Twentieth Century: A Study of Their Political. Social and Economic Activities (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1933), pp. 322-332; Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Political Woman (New York; Basic Books, 1974), p. 29. 2 The only universal commonality among women legislators is their gender. They include political conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, rural and urban residents, strong-minded women and those less aggressive, party activists and those less partisan, pro-choice advocates and right-to-life advocates, union organizers and women of wealth, and professionals and high school graduates. Iowa's women legislators' personal backgrounds, legislative interests and styles refute any assumptions of their homogeneity, goals, or activities. This group of legislators offers an opportunity to examine women legislators' roles in their communities and in the Iowa General Assembly. The small number of women elected since 1928 suggests that there is something special about these women. (See Figures 1 and 2.) To put them in perspective, the 77 women elected to the General Assembly since 1928 would not fill the Iowa House of Representatives for one session, as there are currently 100 seats in the Iowa House and 50 members in the Iowa Senate. These women and the voters who elected them made uncommon personal and political choices. An examination of those choices and the climate in which women made their decisions provides an opportunity for understanding some aspects of women's political experience in the state. The roles and methods women chose as most beneficial to achieve political goals suggest other aspects of that experience. Also, over the decades, the number of women legislators serving at the same time, their party affiliations, their motives for running for election, and the issues on which they focused reflect changes in our society, culture, and political life. 25-1 I 20- 2 15- 0) X» E Q) II 29 33 37 41 45 49 53 57 61 65 69 73 77 81 85 89 31 35 39 43 47 51 55 59 63 67 71 75 79 83 87 91 Year Republicans Democrats Figure 1.
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