By John Hanna The Associated Press
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134347570_woman29.html
TOPEKA, Kan. — A state senator says she views women's suffrage as a sign that American society doesn't value the family enough but she wouldn't deprive women of the vote.
Sen. Kay O'Connor, a Republican, yesterday confirmed reports that she told leaders of the Johnson County League of Women Voters that she does not celebrate the 1920 enactment of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
"We have a society that does tear families apart," O'Connor said. "I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of."
O'Connor, 59, who describes herself as an "old-fashioned conservative lady," is vice chairwoman of the Senate Elections and Local Government Committee.
She says she votes and believes women should have the right to cast their ballot. But, she adds, if men were doing their job of taking care of women and children, women wouldn't be required to vote.
"The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad," she said. "I believe the man should be the head of the family. The woman should be the heart of the family."
O'Connor, one of the Legislature's most conservative members, has said she was forced into the workplace because of her ailing daughter's medical bills.
She is serving her first year in the Senate after having served eight years in the House.
Delores Furtado, co-president of the Johnson County League of Women Voters, told The Kansas City Star she asked O'Connor 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 because as a state senator "she is the beneficiary of a system she doesn't support."
O'Connor said she did not fear reprisals for making her views known.
"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."
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