JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Republicans in the GOP-controlled Missouri House are embroiled in national controversy this week over a rule that would have tightened the dress code for women lawmakers.
The initial version of the rule, offered by state Rep. Ann Kelley, a Lamar Republican, would have explicitly required women to wear jackets while in the House chamber — although previous rules have already required women to wear a second layer, such as a blazer. The House eventually enacted a revised rule that requires women to wear jackets, but clarifies that jackets include cardigans.
The rule specifies that women must wear “business attire,” a phrase that was already included in the rule governing the dress code for male lawmakers.
“It is essential to always maintain a formal and professional atmosphere on the House floor,” Kelley said on the floor this week. “To ensure this happens, I have felt compelled to offer this amendment which cleans up some of the language in Rule 98 by mirroring the previous language in the gentlemen’s dress code.”
Democrats have excoriated Republicans on social media for legislating over what women should be required to wear. Criticism of the rule change comes at a time when the treatment of women in Missouri has received national attention. Over the summer, the state was the first to almost entirely ban abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“The entire conversation we’re having is once again controlling women on what they can and cannot do,” state Rep. Emily Weber, a Kansas City Democrat, told The Kansas City Star. “Missouri is getting national news about our first week back in session. But ultimately, it’s taken away from the other issues that we were trying to talk about.”
Weber said Democrats pushed back on the rule change because blazers and suit jackets are expensive. Democrats wanted to clarify that a suit jacket would also include cardigans and sweaters, she said.
Female lawmakers in the Missouri House have historically had to wear a blazer or sweater, Weber said. The previous House rule stated they could wear “dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots.” There is no rule requiring women in the Missouri Senate to wear a second layer, such as a blazer.
“It’s kind of just up to professional discretion. We don’t have an issue. The state government continues to function,” said state Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Kansas City Democrat. “On the day that this happened, I was just wearing a blouse without a jacket and everything was fine.”
Weber said her party has previously pushed to get rid of the requirement that women have to wear a second layer in the House. In a state that has effectively banned abortion, Weber criticized Republicans for trying to require women to wear jackets. She said it’s hard to find blazers for pregnant women.
While the new rule does not address what men should wear, House rules already require men to wear “business attire, including coat, tie, dress trousers, and dress shoes or boots.”
Virginia Ramseyer Winter, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Health Professions and director of the Center for Body Image Research and Policy, said the rule change reinforces the idea that women have to change the way they dress so men are not distracted.
“That’s really problematic. That’s harmful. Men are perfectly capable of controlling themselves and girls and women should be able to be comfortable in what they’re wearing,” she said. “It’s atrocious to me that they’re applying this to female legislators, and it’s kind of mind-blowing.”
Republicans say the criticism over the dress code is overblown. They say the new rule only seeks to clarify the expectation of what lawmakers are supposed to wear in the chamber.
“It’s right now being communicated that Republicans are out to like force women to do, you know, but when you actually read the rule, it is extremely benign,” said state Rep. Doug Richey, an Excelsior Springs Republican.
“The rule … was to clarify what a jacket would be considered for women, because there’s always been an expectation that women and men would be expected to wear business attire and that includes a jacket.”
Richey accused Democrats of grandstanding on the rule change.
“It’s a normal process for any entity regarding a professional work environment,” he said. “We just happen to have a political context that we have to navigate and, because of that, it is ripe for some members to grandstand and try to make it into something that it’s not.”
In Kansas, state Senate rules require professional attire for all members, but the language does not specify rules based on gender. The Kansas House has no formal written rules for attire, but, by tradition, members wear jackets.
A sign at the entrance of the Kansas House chamber tells members not to wear hats.
———
(The Kansas City Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this story.)
———
