Undismayed by Any Mere Man

319 Pages·2011·1.2 MB·English

by  Dana R. Bennett

"Undismayed by Any Mere Man":
Women Lawmakers and Tax Policy in Nevada,
1919-1956
by
Dana Rae Bennett

A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Approved March 2011 by the
Graduate Supervisory Committee:

Susan E. Gray
Donald Critchlow
Jannelle Warren-Findley

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
May 2011
ABSTRACT

Women have played a vital role in Nevada's lawmaking process since first
lobbying the Territorial Legislature in 1861. In subsequent decades, women
increased in numbers as lobbyists, staff, and reporters. By 1914, when Nevada
women won the right to vote and be elected to office, male legislators were
accustomed to a female presence in the Capitol. With enfranchisement, however,
came a more direct role for women in the state's lawmaking process. Featuring the
twenty-nine women who served in the Nevada Legislature in the first half of the
twentieth century, this dissertation enhances knowledge about public women
between what are commonly called the two feminist waves. In addition to a
general analysis of their partisan and legislative activities, this dissertation
specifically contemplates women's participation in shifting Nevada's tax base
from residents to nonresidents.
This dissertation argues that these women legislators were influenced
primarily by their experiences in the business sector. Suffrage provided the
opportunity to hold public office, but it did not define their politics. More useful
for understanding women lawmakers in the first half of the twentieth century is
what I call "fiscal maternalism." Women legislators mitigated their social
concerns with their understanding of the state's economic limitations. Their votes
on controversial issues such as legalized gambling, easy divorce, and regulated
prostitution reflected a perspective of these issues as economic first and moral
second. Demonstrating a motherly care for the state's economy and the tax burden
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on families, women invoked both their maternal authority and financial acumen to
construct their legislative authority.
Combining policy history and women's history, this dissertation
documents that a legislator's sex did not necessarily predict her vote on legislation
and advances the gendered analysis of state lawmaking beyond the dichotomy
that emerges with the application of the label "women's issues." In addition, this
dissertation demonstrates that the digitization of newspapers provides a fruitful
new resource for historians, particularly those interested in women. The ability to
search within articles removes the reliance on headlines and reveals that the
previously-disregarded society pages are valuable tools for tracing women's
business activities and political networks.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the spring of 2006, I slipped out of a conference being held on the
Tempe campus of Arizona State University and settled on a bench not far from
Hayden Library, lazily wondering what it would be like to be a student again. It
had been twenty years since I had finished my masters in what was then the new
field of women’s history, and I was comfortably drifting along on a profitable
career path. Without warning, a bird dove out of a nearby tree and whacked me in
the head. Three months later, I was enrolled in the history PhD program at ASU.
With a nod to that clever bird, I am pleased to acknowledge the many
people who made this dissertation process both possible and pleasant. My family,
especially my parents Dan and Joan Bennett, didn’t blink an eye when I quit my
job, sold my house, and went back to graduate school. Their support never
wavered. Good friends in both Nevada and Arizona generously celebrated each
passing milestone. My dearest friend Dale Erquiaga kept me moving forward with
plenty of fortifying wine. My fiancé Shannon Jackson, an amazing cook, ensured
that I didn’t go hungry. He, too, has quit his job, sold his house, and returned to
school, and I will happily support him through the remainder of his studies as he
has sustained me through mine.
I am fortunate to have been guided through the academic world by
incredibly smart and savvy historians. Professor Noel Stowe picked up where the
bird left off, convinced me that this goal was attainable, and shepherded me
through classes, internships, and exams. I dearly wish he had lived to read this
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dissertation. He left me, however, in the extremely capable hands of Professor
Susan Gray whose wise counsel and challenging queries shaped this dissertation
into a much better document that I had ever imagined. Her sharp and sophisticated
analysis exemplifies the pinnacle of history as a profession, and her standards of
historical scholarship are an inspiration. Indeed, working with my entire
dissertation committee has been rewarding. I have enjoyed many fruitful
conversations with Professor Jannelle Warren-Findley with whom I share the
singular experience of having been self-employed. Provocative discussions with
Professor Donald Critchlow always yield new insights about the complicated
relationship between policy history and today’s politics. My committee’s
confidence in the quality of my work was validated when I was honored with a
dissertation completion fellowship from ASU’s Graduate College and the School
of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies.
Research for this dissertation provided a terrific excuse to drive around
Nevada, one of my favorite things to do. I relished the time spent with Joel
Guldner and his colleagues at Special Collections at the University of Nevada,
Reno, and with Su Kim Chung and her colleagues at Special Collections at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Research Library of the Legislative
Counsel Bureau is a hidden treasure, thanks to Nan Bowers, Jan Wolfley, and
Teresa Wilt. It was always fun to chat with Jeff Kintop and Chris Driggs at the
Nevada State Archives in Carson City and Eric Moody at the Nevada Historical
Society in Reno. I thoroughly enjoyed my visits to the Nevada Historical Society
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in Las Vegas, the Central Nevada Museum in Tonopah, and the Northeastern
Nevada Historical Society in Elko. I valued many helpful suggestions from
legendary Nevada historians Guy Rocha and Philip Earl.
I presented a portion of this dissertation at the annual meeting of the
Social Science History Association in 2009 and profited from the constructive
critiques of Professor Benita Roth of Binghamton University, my alma mater, and
Professor Kendra Schiffman of the University of Minnesota. My research also led
to articles published in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly and Frontiers: A
Journal of Women Studies. I welcomed the anonymous reviewers’ comments,
which were both useful and encouraging, and the expert guidance of the journals’
editors, Michael Green and Gayle Gullett.
I simply cannot overstate my appreciation to the relatives of the women
upon whom this dissertation is focused. I gained priceless insights through
personal chats with Helen Williams’s grand-nephew, Mary Sharp’s
granddaughter, Alice Towle’s grandson, and Hazel Denton’s son and daughter-in-
law and telephone and email conversations with Frances Friedhoff’s daughter-in-
law, Rita Millar’s grandsons and granddaughter, and Lois Washburn’s daughter. I
extend my most heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Gilbert and Swainia Cochran, Jeanne
Sharp Howerton, Gene Wines Segerblom, Bill Young, Ralph and Sara Denton,
Helen Strosnider Friedhoff, Thomas Burns, Robert Burns, Mary Burns-Tavish,
and Lois Deimel Whealey. These delightful encounters enriched my research
beyond measure, and I will always be grateful for their many kindnesses.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................. x
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................ xii
CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1
Historiography .............................................................................. 13
Theory and Methodology .............................................................. 24
The Significance of Nevada .......................................................... 31
Overview of Chapters ................................................................... 35
2 “WOMEN OF TALENT, PUBLIC SPIRIT, AND BUSINESS TACT”:
WOMEN IN POLITICS BEFORE 1919 .................................................. 41
Placing the Nevada Legislature .................................................... 42
The Legislative Process ................................................................ 48
Women in the Legislative Process Before 1916 ........................... 56
Female Advocates ............................................................. 56
Female Reporters .............................................................. 61
Female Employees ............................................................ 63
Electing Women Before Nevada Suffrage .................................... 68
Conclusion .................................................................................... 76
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CHAPTER Page

3 “HER BUSINESS EXPERIENCE FULLY FITS HER FOR THE
OFFICE”: POLITICAL WOMEN AFTER SUFFRAGE......................... 80
Bridge Generation Demographics................................................. 88
The Work Experience of the Bridge Generation ........................ 102
The Bridge Generation as Partisans ............................................ 112
Making Laws .............................................................................. 120
Leadership and Committee Assignment ......................... 120
Legislation....................................................................... 128
After Legislative Service ............................................................ 137
Conclusion .................................................................................. 144
4 “THE UP-GROWTH OF NEW INDUSTRIES”: FEDERAL FUNDING,
SIN TAXES, AND WOMEN LAWMAKERS ...................................... 147
Federal Funding in Nevada ......................................................... 149
Highway Funding and the Gas Tax ................................ 154
Vocational Education ...................................................... 158
Nevada Women and the State Senate ............................. 162
Assistance for Needy Children ....................................... 172
Federal Funding and Jobs ............................................... 176
Taxing the Tourists ..................................................................... 178
Divorces and Weddings .................................................. 180
The Gambling Industry ................................................... 194
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CHAPTER Page

Did Legalized Gambling Doom Female Candidates? ................ 199
Conclusion .................................................................................. 209
5 THE “LITTLE MOTHERS” TRIUMPH: ADOPTING THE SALES TAX
FOR EDUCATION ................................................................................ 215
Early Attempts to Impose a Sales Tax ........................................ 217
Taxing Single Men ...................................................................... 219
And Then Came Maude .............................................................. 232
Legislative Action ....................................................................... 241
1956 Referendum ........................................................................ 250
Conclusion .................................................................................. 262
6 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 266
REFERENCES ......................................................................................... 285
APPENDIX
A NEVADA FEMALE LEGISLATORS, 1918-1956 ................... 299
B OCCUPATIONS OF NEVADA FEMALE LEGISLATORS .... 303

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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1. Women Elected to State Legislatures Before Nevada Suffrage ....... 74
3.1. Female Legislators in order of Age at First Session ......................... 89
3.2 Assemblywomen Who Ran for Re-election .................................... 138
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