Top Row, Left to Right:
Kathryn O’Loughlin McCarthy was first woman elected to the U.S. Congress from Hays in 1932. She had served in the Kansas legislaturepreviously.
Nancy Landon Kassebaum was elected in 1978 as the first woman U. S. Senator from Kansas. She worked tirelessly on issues such as reducing the budget deficit, arms control, and health care legislation. In her last term, she chaired the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and was the second woman in U. S. history to chair a standing committee. After her retirement from the Senate in 1997, Kassebaum married former U. S. Senate majority leader Howard Baker of Tennessee.
Jan Meyers, from Overland Park, served five terms in Congress from 1984-1996. In 1995, she became the first Republican woman to chair a standing House committee in more than 40 years. She also served twelve years in the Kansas State Senate from 1973-1984 and was known as a leading proponent of issues of interest to women, children and families. Meyers’s long tenure as a public servant began on the Overland Park (Kansas) City Council. Reflecting on a political career that sometimes saw her take a stand against her party on major social issues, Meyers advised would–be politicians, “Listen to your conscience and your constituents—both. Most of the time they’ll agree. If your conscience is different than your constituents’, then you’ll have a hard time.”1
Kansas women in the Congress include:
Kathryn O’Loughlin McCarthy 73rd Congress 1933-35
Martha Keys 94th 95th Congress (1975-1979)
Jan Meyers 96-104th Congress (1985-1997)
Nancy Boyda 110th Congress (2007-2009
Lynn Jenkins 111th – 115th Congress (2009-2019)
Sharice Davids 116th Congress (2019-present)
https://history.house.gov/People/
Second Row, Left to Right:
Joan Finney (1925 - 2001) began her political career by working in the Topeka and Washington, DC offices of United States Senator Frank Carlson. She served as commissioner of elections for Shawnee County from 1970 to 1972. She changed political parties to run for Kansas State Treasurer and was then elected for four terms, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She was elected the 42nd Governor of Kansas in 1990 and was the first woman to hold that office and the first woman to defeat an incumbent governor in a general election.
Laura Kelly a Democrat from Topeka, became the third women to win the governorship. Kelly served fourteen years in the Kansas Senate (2005-2018) before resigning on January 14, 2019 to serve as Governor of Kansas. Kelly was ranking minority member on the Senate Ways and Means Committee for most of her legislative career.
Kathleen Sebelius, also a Democrat from Topeka, was the second woman elected as Governor. Prior to running for Governor, she had served as a state representative from Topeka, 1985-1994 when she ran for State Insurance Commissioner in 1994 and served two terms, 1995-2003. She was elected twice as Governor but resigned in 2008 to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration. From April 2009 through June 2014, Sebelius served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as the 21st Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, leading the effort to pass and implement the most significant health reform in half a century, the Affordable Care Act. Forbes named Sebelius one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. Time magazine named her one of America’s Top Five Governors.
Bottom Row, Left to Right:
Oletha Faust-Goudeau, first African American woman elected to the Kansas Senate in 2008 was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. She was employed with PCA International for 16 years and studied at Wichita State University, majoring in pre-law. In 2004, she was elected to the 84th District in the Kansas House of Representatives. She is currently serving as Assistant Minority Leader in the Kansas Senate.
Delia Garcia was appointed Secretary of Labor by Governor Kelly in January 2019. Garcia was first elected to the Kansas House of Representative in 2004, where she was the first Latina woman elected, and at the age of 27, the youngest female to serve in the Kansas Legislature. She is honored in the Kansas Historical Museum for this achievement.
Ponca-We Victors was sworn into her first term in the Kansas House of Representatives in 2011 wearing her native costume. A member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, Rep. Victors is the first Native American woman to serve in the Kansas legislature. She was reelected five times to the 103rd district (Wichita) and is serving today.
To find other women in Kansas State Elected Office, 1919-2019 go to: https://cdm16884.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16884coll1/id/489/rec/4
To find a complete list of people who served in the Kansas Legislature, go to Kansas Legislators: Past and Present. https://kslib.info/businessdirectoryii.aspx