As if eliminating a woman’s right to an abortion wasn’t enough last year, the state of Missouri passed a dress code last week that requires women in the GOP-controlled State House of Representatives to cover their arms.
The new rule (Rule 98) was co-sponsored by Rep. Ann Kelley (R-127), who initially wanted everyone to have to wear blazers while in the chamber, but GOPers relaxed the proposal over opposition from Democrats and agreed that jackets and cardigans would be OK too.
The original rule stated that “at all times when the House is seated, proper attire for gentlemen shall be business attire, including coat, tie, dress trousers, and dress shoes or boots. Proper attire for women shall be business attire, including jackets worn with dresses, skirts, or slacks, and dress shoes or boots. The previous dress code allowed dresses, skirts, or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate shoes or boots.
Granted, there has always been a dress code in the Missouri chambers, but the whole hoopla over women’s bare arms is indicative of a conservative resurgence in different standards based on gender.
Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern (D-15) tweeted that “it is mind-boggling that members of the Missouri House have the right to bear arms on the floor of the chamber, but women legislators are forbidden from showing bare arms.” Rep. Raychel Proudie (D) called the motion “ridiculous” and added that “We are fighting — again — on a woman’s right to choose something and this time is how she covers herself.”
Rep. Peter Merideth (D-80) refused to vote on the measure, telling colleagues, “I don’t think I’m qualified to say what’s appropriate or not appropriate for women and I think that is a really dangerous road for us all to go down.” He added, “Y’all had a conniption fit the last two years when we talked about maybe, maybe wearing masks in a pandemic to keep each other safer,” he added. “How dare the government tell you what you have to wear over your face?”
Also speaking on the House floor, Rep. Ashley Aune (D-14) asked, “Do you know what it feels like to have a bunch of men in this room looking at your top trying to determine if it’s appropriate or not?”
Telling women in America what to do with their bodies is nothing new, and only reveals the fact that as a gender, women are still treated as “the lesser sex” and unable to make their own decisions.
The history of our country is riddled with government control over women’s bodies. For example, rape was long viewed as a property crime against the victim’s father, and as property themselves, married women couldn’t own property under the common law principle of coverture (States gradually granted property ownership to married women through 1943). Women of color had it even worse in the 19th Century as most states excluded black women (free or slave) from rape laws.
The suffragette movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the US, finally granted in 1920 under the 19th Amendment.
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that women could not serve as bartenders in larger cities unless their fathers or husband owned the establishment. It wasn’t until 1973 that women could serve on a jury in all 50 states, and one year later women finally were permitted to have credit cards without their husband’s permission.
The recent swath of abortion bans, and failure of passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the exclusion of women in certain provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are more evidence that women are still classified as second-class citizens.
Although references to the Handmaid’s Tale and the Taliban are prevalent on social media, let’s not forget that discrimination against women is as American as apple pie, and the new Missouri rule is just one more example of our country’s patriarchal legacy.