Kansas has always been a little ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to welcoming women into politics.
After all, the first woman ever elected mayor of an American city was in Kansas.
Susanna Madora Salter, active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, became mayor of Argonia in 1887. She presided over roughly 400 people, coincidentally, about the same size of Argonia today.
Before Nancy Kassebaum was elected to the United States Senate in 1978, Kansas had already sent a couple of women to the United States House of Representatives.
Kathryn O’Loughlin McCarthy rode Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 landslide election into the House where she served one term, the first woman from Kansas elected to Congress.
In 1974, Martha Keys was elected and served two terms.
But it was Kassebaum’s rise to the Senate that really changed Kansas politics.
“Her election to the Senate made a significant difference in opening things up for women,” Kansas historian Virgil Dean said. He said women had an easier time reaching all offices after her election.
“Shortly after that, more and more women get elected to the state legislature because that was that was slow and happening, too,” Dean said.
Kassebaum in the Senate made it a little easier for Joan Finney, who was state treasurer; Kathleen Sebelius, who was insurance commissioner; and Laura Kelly, a state senator, to ascend to the governor’s mansion.
Depending on how you define it, Kassebaum was the first or second woman elected in her own right to the Senate. Before Kassebaum, Margaret Chase Smith followed her deceased husband into the House and then won a seat in the upper chamber in 1948.
“She was a trailblazer. She showed us we can be in the room. We can be at the table,” state Sen. Dinah Sykes told KCUR.
Sykes is now running for higher office. She is the Democratic candidate for insurance commissioner. “(Kassebaum) had gumption and did what she believed was right for Kansans and was unapologetic about it.”
Kassebaum supported the Equal Rights Amendment, was pro-choice and refused to endorse Donald Trump for president.
Dean said she was one of the last of that type of Republican.
“Nancy was probably one of the last real moderate to liberal Republicans.”
The Kassebaum family has said there will be a private memorial service on a later date.
