Columns

Maxine Berman

Titty Bill Redux

January 20, 2012

The late, great Molly Ivins once said of a Texas congressman, “If his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.”

As someone who has been known to wax nostalgic about the good old days of my seven terms in Michigan’s then-non-term-limited legislature, it would be understandable to see me adrift in warm fuzzies when something happens in today’s legislature that evokes memories of the past.

Not always.

Enter Senator Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge). In brief, and as we all know by now, he called Lansing PR executive Kelly Rossman-McKinney a hooker.

The “hooker affair” brought up not-so-fond memories of another Michigan Senate. In the early ’90s, a young woman reporter for a student newspaper was interviewing State Senators Jack Welborn and Gil DiNello about DiNello’s bill to ban topless dancing. It prompted Welborn to turn to DiNello and ask, “So how’s that DiNello titty bill going?” DiNello lifted his jacket lapels and laughed, “Well, they’re still here.”

When criticized about their remarks, both Senators refused to apologize. DiNello accused the reporter of “political correctness crap.” Welborn said he owed no apology because, “Tit is not a sensitive word to me. I’m a dairy farmer.” Later he added, “That’s what happens when you let girls into the men’s locker room.”

The incident occurred just a few days before “Take Our Daughters to Work” day.

So I was saddened, though I guess not really surprised, to know that sexism is still alive and well in the Michigan Legislature. Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer’s op-ed column in response to the Jones incident related continuing problems with sexism on the turf where she works. Her essay provoked a number of male responses ranging from accusations of whining to bullying Senator Jones. (Bullying? I mean, seriously?) And as one man commented, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” (Or locker room, as it were.)

One of the most common questions I was asked during my House tenure was, “Is there sexism in the legislature?” My standard response was that the legislature is a representative body, and if there is sexism in society or racism or any other ism, you will find it in the legislature, too. But I also said that because we all got to know each other so well, I thought the isms were somewhat moderated in the legislature.

New legislators who had rarely seen, not to mention known, an African American might well end up sitting next to an African American on a committee, or trying to work out an agreement with him/her. The same was true for women. Men who were not accustomed to interacting with women on a professional basis now had to. We certainly still had plenty of problems, but because of continual close proximity and because of the seniority system, which forced leadership into giving high-level positions to women, we ultimately received recognition and sometimes even respect, albeit grudgingly from some men.

Our numbers were also greater back then and, yes, we were willing to shove back when necessary.

(I will say, though, that my viewpoint on improvements may well be influenced by the seniority I had. Some of the less senior women still faced obstacles.)

I don’t think Kelly Rossman-McKinney or Sen. Whitmer needs help from me handling today’s crop of legislative vegetation. They are both certainly tougher and smarter than the Sen. Joneses of the world.

However, I do worry about the general stature of women in today’s legislature. As I predicted long ago, term limits have decreased the number of women legislators. And term limits effectively ended the seniority system, a great equalizer for women and minorities in power distribution. Look at one telling current number: out of 19 House committees, only one is chaired by a woman.

During my first year in office (when there were only 12 or 13 women in the House), Governor Blanchard created a new economic development board of at least 20 people. Not one was a woman. When I challenged one of his appointees about the obvious omission, his response was, “We forgot.” We forgot? Did the current House speaker just forget to appoint more women?

Term limits give legislators such a short time to make a name for themselves. If women are generally invisible, forgotten about, how many others will think to run, and what will happen to the pipeline to higher office?

Loose cannons like Jones get the headlines, often because they want them, but he is little more than a caricature, much like his ancestral Senate doppelgangers. As I once said, Senators Welborn and DiNello would have been considered Neanderthals in the Pleistocene Era. Welcome to the club, Senator Jones.

And will someone please pass the water?

Maxine Berman is the Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at Central Michigan University, the first woman named to the post. She served seven terms in the Michigan House and most recently was director of special projects for Governor Jennifer Granholm. She is the author of the 1994 book The Only Boobs in the House Are Men.