At least for one Kansas politician.

Fresh off the AP wire...

^BC-Senator-Women Voting,0321
^'Old-fashioned' Kansas state senator says she does not support women's suffrage

OLATHE, Kan. - A female state senator says if women's suffrage were being voted on today she would not support it, because the 19th Amendment was the start of a decades-long erosion of family values.

''I'm an old-fashioned woman,'' Sen. Kay O'Connor told The Kansas City Star. ''Men should take care of women, and if men were taking care of women (today) we wouldn't have to vote.''

Delores Furtado, co-president of the Johnson County League of Women Voters, had asked the 59-year-old Republican to the league's ''Celebrate the Right to Vote'' luncheon, and O'Connor responded: ''You probably wouldn't want me there because of what I would have to say.''

Furtado said she was shocked by O'Connor's view. As a state senator, Furtado said, ''she is the beneficiary of a system she doesn't support.''

O'Connor said she does vote. But she said she believes that if men had been protecting the best interests of women, then women would not be forced to cast ballots and serve in the Legislature. Instead, they could stay home, raise families and tend to domestic duties, she said.

The 19th amendment giving all U.S. women the right to vote was ratified in 1920. O'Connor said the amendment began a societal shift that eventually encouraged women to trade homemaker roles for careers.

She said she entered the workplace only because of her daughter was ill and medical bills were mounting.

O'Connor, of Olathe, was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1992 and won a Senate seat last year. She isn't worried if voters don't like her views.

''If I don't get re-elected, my only punishment is to go home to my husband and my roses and my children and my grandchildren,'' she said. ''And if the trips to Topeka get to be too much and my husband asks me to quit, I would.''



-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Answers

So I guess the question is, what is she doing in the State Senate?

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Could the answer be, "Well, she won't be there for long!"

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

But you know what? The hard work of pioneer women is much of the foundation for Kansas' history. By saying that women shouldn't have the right to vote in Kansas, and that they should only tend to domestic duties, undermines the hard work that those women did to make that state the place it is today (whatever that is - I've never been there. But I read a lot of pioneer journals, dammit!)

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

Okay, let me get this straight:

(1) She votes;

(2) but women shouldn't have to vote because their husbands should be taking care of them;

(3) she only went to work because her daughter was sick;

(4) she'd stop working (and voting, presumably) if her husband asked her to.

So is all this a really passive-aggressive way of criticizing her husband?

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

It's utter bollocks is what it is.

I can't believe an ELECTED official would say something so asinine. I'm in shock.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

I don't understand how a man "taking care of you" negates a woman's need to vote and put her beliefs into action via the ballot box. A man only gets one vote, right? So what if he disagrees with his wife? Does he vote her way because he's taking care of her? If so, how is that fair to HIM and his beliefs?

Women are FORCED to cast ballots? Okay, this woman is a stark raving lunatic.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

What she is saying is that if men had taken care of women as they should we would have continued to be their property, second class citizens clearly of lesser intelligence but thankfully of broader hip, perfect for the breeding, the cleaning and the cooking but far to emotional (not to mention bloody) to decide anything important enough to be voted on.

What she is saying is that men are more important than women, always have been, always will be. She is saying that she needs a man to take care of her like a fish needs water.

As this is America she has every right to say that. However, she should stop being such a fuckin' hypocrite and take her ass out of the Senate, back to the kitchen, put on a damn apron, bake some fuckin' cookies, stop voting, and become the happy little Stepford Wife she wishes we women all were.

I think I shall go weep for the future of the young girls of Kansas.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

I think she doesn't like politics too much, or men. A great way to get out.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

In the latest version of the story, there's this quote:

Legislative leaders say they weren't planning any action against O'Connor.

''I admire her for the courage of her convictions; I just can't imagine anyone in 2001 having those convictions,'' said state Rep. Bill Reardon, a Democrat.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

great quote. haaaaaaaaa!!

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001

WriterGirl, that was EXACTLY what I was thinking. Passive-aggressive bitter at the husband much?

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Well, I totally think that she goes by this "Husband and wife are one and that one is the husband".

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Is there something wrong with this woman? Talk about being a pilotfish for the patriarchy.

If she doesn't think women should vote, she should get the hell out of public life and stop voicing her asinine opinions.

O'Connor should join hands with Ann Coulter and Phyllis Schafly and jump off the nearest bridge.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002