Time for a Woman President?

from the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas a pr presents an hour with kathleen sebelius i'm kate mcintyre governor of kansas secretary of the us department of health and human services kansas insurance commissioner just a few of the steps in the political career of kathleen sebelius said bilious with a kick out speaker in the two thousand fifteen dole presidential lecture series the first woman president to point our focusing on women in politics and whether america is ready for a female president this event was moderated by dog institute director bill lacy after microphone issue has delayed the beginning of their program by several minutes civilians joked about her own experience with technical problems with the affordable care act for like the website the peak is it happens it's a lion on my father

ran for office for the first time when i was five it certain city council he was in congress he was governor of ohio where the only father daughter governors in the history of the united states so i really felt like people did in the false go door to door improved guards nobody in my family ever told me it was a voluntary activity and so it became a part of my life and i also though went to an all girls school from the time i was included three senior in high school and they went to an all women's college that had a particular impact on me because i really grew up in a world where girls did everything they were the smartest in the class and the dumbest in the class they were the athletes in the ballerinas they were the president center treasures so it never occurred to me that you couldn't do everything that there were

special rules for girls and boys ah and i think that was very helpful in and later time when there were opportunities they are so thrilling my family background the notion that service was an important part of our lives and watching my father do it did it was very clear to me that being my father i'm going into crab say getting a lot of applies doing very important work was a much better deal than my mother who was trying to keep other pieces together and keep for kids it attracts so i really i mean i think i went to him you know the thing is your career someone so distinguish that kind of just really rather than maybe cover some of the debt but let's give or two when you ran for statewide office to statewide offices in kansas when you decided to run what kind of unique challenges that you think he would face because you were a woman

i'm now as sandy praeger is here tonight it was my successor in the office of insurance commissioner but when i ran for insurance commissioner there had never been a woman in the office and there had never been a democrat in office in the history of the state and that the two men who went to my immediate successors had both been there a combined fifty years i am so this did not seem like a real logical wrong to make it wasn't done something that people thought was a really good idea and frankly i have no idea what went on in the office on which also made the campaign a little interesting the scariest thing probably american politics was wrong and i did it because i had been in the legislature and served on the health committee in the insurance committee and in the early nineties the clinton health plan had not past but healthcare was beginning to be

discussed in a completely you know that offers insurance commissioner we have an impact on health care in an impact on health insurers and i decide to see you we'll talk about it on the campaign trail that i should take the test to be an insurance agent at least it would give me some sense of credentials and i can say to people you know i'm qualified to be an insurance agent i and i'm what i'd studied and learned all about life insurance and car insurance and health insurance and i went to take a test it was a computerized tests and down at the bottom of the screen it said the result of this test will be sent to the kansas insurance department and to you and your email address and i got while the results were supposed to be pride that i was running against the incumbent in the kansas

insurance and how is reassured by flunked the test this race was over sewing i had to take a really big bratton get sand and in order to act and i did pass the test but i didn't know really what went on in the office one we had a real challenge in trying to figure out actually what people did inside the office and i had a series of interviews that i will never forget that i'm calling and directors is between november and january when i got sworn in and basically say what is it that you do and they would tell me again do you do it very well who are you the most remarkable interview i had was with the head of human relations department a man who had been there for a long time who was in charge of hiring and virtually everything in this office was unclassified they were political and that i said you know i've been in and out of his office after a couple of weeks and

how looking around and i don't see anybody of color and i see very few women do you have any minorities in this office and he said mavis is the head of the person out to parma it to color girls who work on the base so the first person i replace with him and i hired a wonderful african american woman to sit in his chair i thought that's the way we start the new culture and thought about running for governor are already forgotten where i sell iced beer to determine in their interest for me and for reelection was successfully reelected and and there was going to be an open seat for governor and that seemed like a logical time there were people who said you don't run this time that we see it to the south and particularly

because they are popular progress is the attorney general woman palace snowball was aiming to run for governor and there were a lot of my political supporters who said he'd be great for governor someday but don't run now because you can't because she will be very popular area had the same views on a lot of things but you know she she's a republican still win and what i knew is that you can take your opponent's you you just have to sort of pick your time and i felt that i really needed to make the race as it turned out our love was in the primary for well and then dropped out and decided not to complete the race ended up getting married in taking a different path so i'm i'm glad i made the choice that i do to run of the time that i did and that part is i knew a little bit more than i've been in the lead fletcher and worked closely with governor graves well i was insurance commissioner he hadn't we head

up a kansas insurance and in a children's insurance program we worked together on a number of issues so that transition actually was very exciting i i see i know that a number of my colleagues from an officer here people who were both in the governor's office and people who served in the cabinet of john lennon the secretary and the former secretary of revenue i communications director is here my chief of staff this year but that was a wonderful opportunity to serve it when i get elected that the spill was two thousand and two thirteen women in the history of the united states ever elected government either another twelve elected since then the thirty five women total have ever served as governors and so it's still a bit of a glass ceiling to be the ceo of the state i'm

curious did you find as a woman your reception was any different than either of those two posts at its an interesting question since i've never been a man i am no idea as a woman candidate and it's always done that quite sure what the alternative is i think that he uses has such a long and rich tradition of women running for office a bit of a history lesson in a women voted in kansas well before they voted and nationally full suffrage was in kansas eight years before the nineteenth amendment was passed the women actually could vote from the time the constitution was written white women could vote first in municipal elections in city elections kansans were electing all women governments before women actually had full suffrage mayors and sheriffs in city

commissioners a woman has held virtually i think every elected office in the state and so i think we live in a state where there is actually that can be advantages being a woman candidate that many states and that is still a disadvantage but i think kansas is not one of them so if you if you get to that i am opportunity to run i think there is a wide open door in kansas and then you just have to prove yourself to be enabled candidate can you take some time to share with us how her appointment is secretary of hhs came about so a bit of the context in history again that was a little bit of a back and forth i am and i think this is in the actual raw books so i was actually vetted to be the vice president president now president called me early on i had done my sentence here and my daughter in law on that jaunty

and our older son that were very committed to a brock obama and felt he was an amazing candidate and really pushing me to endorse early and be involved and in fact said to me at one point and i repeated this up into the president he said you know you've got to get out there now mom he needs old white women why but i've been an early endorser and had worked on the campaign in and he asked if i would allow myself to be considered for vice president so we went through that vetting process and then he immediately came back when he made what i think was doing a very good choice in joe biden and said i want you in the administration i you know if i'm successful i want to come into the cabinet and immediately after the election we began

talking about an hour but the two areas that really were of great interest to me were energy and we had done some interesting things here in kansas around renewable energy and i saw that as it happened the future that had to change and it just because of the broad array of not just the possibility would be a comprehensive healthcare but tiller family's issues in science and technology in the whole food and drug administration in the portfolio was amazing on the time capsule was going to be the nominee for hhs and i knew that so i actually told the president went after he was elected around thanksgiving that i wanted to be taken out of consideration for campus i really thought i would serve my full term as governor that maybe there would be a chance to catch up and you know baby opening somewhere in his term and maybe in the second term and i went i love being governor i had no great interest in leaving the state it all in you know the

economy was difficult in an hour wage and so i said i thought i'm happy this day i decide to stay calm and then timed national dropped out of the nomination process in late january and the president came back to me and said i'm not offering this job but if i often do this job would you take less of this and then we started the process of you know looking at the possibility of being confirmed and i have to say in the dill center the person who called me i minutes after time capsule dropout without but they were in the same law firm and that senator dole called in said kathleen you have to do this if he are pretty disturbing have to do and i will do anything i can to help you be successful in the cabarets and he did he called a lot of people used that a lot of time with senators on the other side of the aisle he

came to the confirmation hearings with me he introduced me it gave me a lot of credibility as a you know as somebody who worked across party lines tuesday was absolutely terrific and continues to be a great friend and supporter you went from one executive position as governor to another one is as a member of the president's cabinet but they're very very different positions can you cannot describe the transition and what was new about him what was conan comparable versus what was really come up a sign you're still an executive but isn't being a governor is great training to be cabinet officer of the rhythm has a lot to say and you are a ceo ceo on steroids in that in the cap and gown just a little snapshot of hhs eleven operating divisions from the field drug administration the national institutes of how the centers for medicare medicaid services ninety thousand employees just under a trillion dollar budget

so it's a kind of big operation by its the same panic theory of picking the best and brightest people to have those departments that are helping them to do a good job the real difference for me was i had a boss again i am now i like the boss but it it is it you get ready to do something and somebody said i would say okay we're going to propose this remove this money nearly see what we can do about this and i'd say and we're going to talk to the white house about the lethal is that guy down the street and that's a different that's a different rhythm and there's always you know in hhs has won are just as a for instance and we would arrange things often from the public health point of view that might be different than if you tussles with my colleagues at the department of agriculture around things like should you continue to subsidize

corn syrup known to make people are obese and it added to projects it it really contributes to the kind of help of a lot of people and government subsidies may not be the smartest way to improve people's health department of agriculture's sees that enter a very different lens that support farmers it's a critical part of that stacks are so the white house becomes that navigator of the ultimate policy not somebody they could take a moment just to describe the difference in your day to day routine or were the similarities in your daily routines when you were governor versus when you remember the cabinet we're very very busy but i'd say i have much more control over their schedule as governor on many people plan my day and told me what to do and in terms of choosing and picking from lots of possibilities

undersecretary we did we go through that same process plan a day and then it would be often blown out by the white house so the president would say no i really need you to come to the roosevelt room and he had his three hour meeting and then three hours of things that had been planned and scheduled to attend have to be replanted rescheduled or your day would just be extended by three hours or no you need to fly to x y or z or be involved in a global situation and they were always i mean i came into the office of secretary in the midst of each one and one the emerging pandemic and why now in hindsight it seems relatively children were dying young adults were dying there was no vaccine we didn't know how long it would be until there was a vexing it was a terrifying time and it was international from day one i had never dealt with a pandemic no one had in seventy years so a lot of that was just brand newly had to sort of make it up as you went along

what were some of the toughest problems you face what i'd like you to use if you could just given an example and explain a little bit is governor and also his secretary of hhs was world war that was won each of the most difficult issues that you had to resolve her decision she had to make i think there's a question as governor i inherited a school finance litigation that had been going on for nine and had been in various courts then was really tumultuous and it took three's sessions and a special session to finally reach resolution but that was a constant battle and a very tough issue and i think the at the end of the day that was there bipartisan compromise and once we got with a silent way to fund schools into the future and had a big influx of new money

in the kansas school so it was a it was a difficult problem it took really bringing people to the table over and over again campaigning inside the state the line from community to community getting the business community involved but it was ultimately results probably the toughest and most focused issue as secretary was the lead up to the passage and then the implementation of the affordable care act and we had a lot of near death experiences you know it looked for a while like the legislation was passed after scott brown was elected into the sixty it senate vote away and i it was a real battle in between the house and senate they were lots of times where it seemed like this all was going to go down the tubes and then you know the the process of just implementing over a four year period of time massive

bill like that while everything else was going on in the department and they were constantly issues and problems but at the end of the day and put in place the near death experiences haven't quite and again on but i think the framework is very much there and i think we'll be there for generations to come a large part of the president's legacies you we made a decision very early on to go big and at every point aligned away when people said oh do something small area you know ensure five children and get out of the room where i'm fine three fifty five year olds and give them health care and declare victory it can't say if there is a chance for a comprehensive bill this is the time we get is present in the beginning we have to you can't fix the economy without fixing health and i think it was absolutely right and so

he he was very much involved david a roll up their sleeves to continue on and if they were tough decisions to be made he's the one who made them what was he like to work with not surprisingly i'm a big fan he's smart he's funny he is out and he is very bad and he takes a long range view he does not like drama in terms of you know people yelling and screaming yelling outset he'd be the one in the room to say come down lets look out you know six months a year from now we gotta keep empty part ii on the horizon don't get caught up in this david a moment to moment back and forth what does this going to mean how does this work how we make it work i am a very i think a balanced viewpoint and an

amazing personality for that kind of office because while it's gets criticized a lot but he won't now we eat will not down be as that emotional as people want him to be it doesn't get on well not the way people want to get wound up i like the fact that you have a kong consistently and very thoughtful presence in the oval office who is not reacting moment to moment trying to really figure out how to maximize that opportunity he hands and how you get the most out of these eight years that he's been given by the people of the united states and he does every day every day and he is their rights will dress dot com i had the chance i really i didn't really realize how he you know he's a blood sport see he plays a world basketball and i had the

opportunity i didn't realize it would be captured on national television to remind him and i actually made my college basketball team he didn't wear that sounds may now come on down on the planet has something when there's any standard be around he hasn't done so even you can sure what was the ticking on one on one now but i i did take him on and on the golf course and my partner and i'd be in which he doesn't like very much ok are you mention madame secretary i believe you said there there than thirty five women governors in the country are women seeking political office in this country where i think i think it is agnew in this format that a woman becoming president it it is an ongoing problem killing the

pipeline right now they're less than twenty percent in the united states congress are women and that's an all time high ten percent of governors are women a little bit better in state legislatures it's about twenty five percent but when fifty one percent a population so we still do not have anywhere near the kind of equal numbers and you know here i am i know you're going to have as part of this series as somebody from the barbary foundation participate in and has done a lot of very interesting work and electing women president and what they determined and this was about ten years ago that if you couldn't collect a woman as a ceo the states how we would have a very hard time in this country unlike in women as ceo the country so they really re focused a lot of their attention on women governors try to figure out why women more women were elected because if a lot of spectacular candidates

before it thousand and two who would run the attorneys general and secretaries of state and others who had experience and talent and they were not successful at the end of the day and i knew what they found is that i'm part of it was voters a look at women differently you know you and i'm always reminded of one of my great heroines and mentors is ann richards who was a successful governor for a term and then on fortune was defeated for reelection but she became a real role model for a lot of us wanted to run in and told a great story that i used to tell him candidate recruitment classes and this is all for women she would say hiding you know it's not fair it is what they're thinking about and you just have to get re for gazeta think in the us then i can tell you to think of it but this is what they're going to think about you

if you're single you couldn't get in if you're married you're neglecting man if you're divorced you couldn't keep the man and the way their children suzette it's not fair but that's what the baker so it's a lesson that some people probably are thinking that you know what can we do to get more women to run for public office well i think women have to be encouraged to run but also i i think we've got to start with some dazzling students here and around the country i think girls have to be ready to take a little bit of risk and i i have spent a lot of time as an employer as a mentor as a political recruiter with possible candidates and what i find often is that a

lot of us who don't know much about much are ready to put up their hand say i'm ready to play announcer what the game is that i'm sure i'm still been able in a lot of very talented young women say you know i need one more course i am not quite ready for that i gotta get one more piece of the puzzle now figured out and there's something about taking that risk and having the compliments that you just have to it may not know everything about the olympic open the door if i had waited in a number of the races iran if i had waited for someone to ask me to row i would never ever run he says that seems unlikely now as though chairman of the kansas democratic

party and many preachers are now in and many of the party operatives are not women many of the funders are not familiar with women candidates are more comfortable there's a very successful guy at work and they recruit one another and i think women to set to be ready to break open the store's at a very early stage and then they find people who are willing to come forward and help and support but somehow we gotta get a little more risk taking in younger women and get them and gates of all this got started a very early age were people again it had that experience where it never occurred to me that i could live with that that was not and i knew that some of these guys were never asked around so i just did around but i think that's that someone unusual and a lot of people are waiting to be asked you share a richards' story just a few moments ago and it did use the these words these are my words but you don't use the word double standard what kind of double standards that

women face in seeking very high office and in in holding very high office and i don't think we necessarily need to power i think we've got some major challenges as a country which is perhaps why were behind with women in political office but also behind with women in the boardroom and women there were corporate presidents and women or university president or chancellor is here tonight but again a unique position wheat we're the only weapon industrialized country without on same policies around on maternity and paternity around supporting childcare so women are often stuck in a situation of having to make very tough choices i you know do a parent or do i continue on the work that we don't have lots of opportunities for flex time or family time not

that that doesn't impact man but a lot of the load goes to women so women take a step back often and are in that situation i think and you know in the legislature when i first started to work in the legislature i was actually watching i was head of lawyers association and there were i think i was one of four or five women who were paid to lobby at the time you know there was always a volunteer from the league of women voters and the whole rest of the group was male and most of the legislators are male and and you were just looked at differently and expected to jump higher and run faster and i was like that the fred astaire ginger rogers you know the ginger rogers did everything fred astaire did she just did it backwards and in high heels and that kind of double standard i think is is very much there and hopefully the girls out today see different roles being played

by women i we have a colleague nancy parachute to step down from the bench and shunning candidate she was a state legislator and as she served in the senate and when her she actually got to the senate and then dr derocher youngest child so he knew her as a senator and then he saw her going to the band's and there were a number of women on the bench in shawnee county and i am at one point the male judges appointed in and her son who was five or six at the time went with her to the swearing in and he said very loudly in the crowd as he wipes this wariness of money i don't know man could the judges ran a place we need it that was baffling to him that this guy had a dress was there taking up about me in twenty sixteen it appears that

we're suddenly our secretary clinton on the people of an argument may be senator warner might run for president on the republican side the outcry the arenas talking very seriously and actually making steps running do you think america is ready for a woman president i think america is ready for a long time america was ready to vaccinate at it you know maybe now when margaret chase smith was there in nineteen sixty four that she get two hundred thousand votes when she was consider for president there have been only though too nominees for vice presidents who were women than for president yet how one was sarah palin and two thousand eight and geraldine ferraro in their late nineties and that's not very

many women making their way the food chain and i think the voters are ready if they have a candidate to vote for it but they're not going to vote and you know i think geraldine ferraro and and served on a great examples well and ferraro was successful with the presidential candidate in and being collected i don't think it was because she was a woman or because there was a disagreement with the country that this was a time for a woman i i think also sarah palin may have been a choice where people again not because she was a woman i think people were not at all certain that she was ready to be a heartbeat away from the present and to be elected president potentially if

something had happened to john mccain and i think both of them i'm are good examples of the country looking at women not because they're women but do they have the qualities that it takes to be a president united states and that's really what we want we have to get to it i don't think there's any question that if hillary clinton runs there will be no discussion in this country about whether or not she has the qualifications to be president united states here is listening you know the race that's run in and who the opposition is but i dont think voters will have any hesitation to say she is enormously well qualified and you know we're in a very weird era it is twenty four seven politician ever ten steps away from a cell phone taking down every kamen you're never on screen are never off camera

any no possible misstep can be a huge tragedy and i was thinking you know today is abraham lincoln's birthday abraham lincoln before he was elected president united states lost eight elections had two failed businesses and a nervous breakdown if you think that that profile of the candidate male or female could run today and be successfully elected president i think what we would invest with it but i mean i think i think there is some and again that's not a woman's issue that is a sound we may be holding people to what is almost impossibly high standards because people make mistakes and they stumble and they don't always say under preserve the right things and they don't always add that there's there's no room for error in this current atmosphere if you're going to allow one out a couple a shining stars on either side and yelling you would say their

audience tonight we'll keep an eye on him it and for years my teenage years maybe and twelve years or somebody is going to be a real force to be reckoned with nationally would you point out i don't think i am having a great lands for all of republicans starts i know some of the governor susanna martinez and a new mexico is is fabulous and is incredibly capable players you know certainly people like susan collins and olympia snowe i knew well and i'm not sure they will run for president mike kelly i have is somebody who is now in the united states senate from new hampshire and is very impressive there are some kamala harris who is the attorney general now in california is likely

run for barbara boxer see is totally spectacular she's really an incredible talent and there's a young woman who just got elected the new governor of rhode island gina raimondo who comes out of private sector which is a bit unusual but she ran for state treasurer first and now she has some she's elected governor and so they're you know they're superstars emerging i think on both sides of the aisle that are that are worth watching and people they're dazzling women and state legislators across this country and that's that has been a great am i think way for women to start the race but that hopefully will see more attorneys general more governors more and the president often more likely than not although innocent abroad obama hillary clinton are different they come out of the

statewide races to go on to office not necessarily mean that the house and senate so here there's no shortage of talent we just have to fill that pipeline there are quite a few young women here tonight students or oral even women who've already got yes of course what would you say to anyone out there are boosting he now running for office are going to say to encourage women what would you say to those who really haven't thought about running for office but the importance of public service why it again grew up in a family where i had no idea what most of my friends' fathers did but i had a pretty good understanding about what my father did and he talked about a lot but mike has to go to the city council and watch the council at work and they made decisions about

and urban development and talked about there is money for schools and they looked at ways that our city of cincinnati could improve and that to me seemed like a very worthwhile way to spend some time in africa awakened contribute to that community certainly state legislatures are in the fall environmental policy and health policy and education policy really making a decision about what the future of the state is all about in a way that and there are very few other people can do that work and do it to that breath it's not that there aren't huge contributions made every day in the private sector but often it adds a more limited scope of you know a state legislator can look at the whole range of issues so i i think that involvement and public office of public service whether it's as a candidate or helping somebody run and win those decisions are going to be made by somebody and having the best and the brightest take a look at that opportunity is

i hugely important i last night attended an event for two school board candidates in activity get and you know that's a thankless office in many ways difficult they're always challenging problems in a state like this where the education budgets are being slashed it's a really tough job to be on the school board i can imagine a more important public office right now then you know to make a determination about what's going to happen the public schools and how the future generation is really guarantee i quit to be globally competitive so i am like huge fan and supporter of public service and public office and i i would say that anybody and certainly the students here are well equipped to do that if you're given up around yourself you know get involved somebody who is going to run and willing to run and be engaged involve we live in a democracy and i think one of the

most terrifying statistics about our current state of political favors is how few people vote and not only do we have an active voter suppression going on with real you know fifty years after the voting rights act what we're seeing is a people's ability to vote to roll back and states across this country including kansas making it more difficult for people to vote as a gift we had enough people voting in the first place when you you know have an election we're only be eligible voters are registered to begin with and then a third of those voters come to vote that say an alarming place to be in a democracy and i think we and we have to inspire people to understand that you know in a democracy and services part of the dues that you pay and certainly voting is part of

your daily obligation and we've got a really good people i think again public service public office being franchised once again are available because i've had a number of people or suggest i ask you this madam secretary what are you up to these days what you do now you know i am spending about me have my turn still in washington in an office the air i am about to launch a project with the aspen institute domestic health strategy group and doing a lot of speaking around the country i am i'm about to join a couple of words doing some work on the private sector side with companies in the health care space and investors in the health care space and one of the things i

get to do that i haven't gotten to do in thirty years is saying no i'm really don't want to do that that that has been a long time so it's a good a good place that my husband is that still on the bench into began would be here tonight but the kids' bar association is hosting a town their yearly dinner tonight two hundred judges and he was part of that process her younger son and daughter in law are here in lawrence so we have a horse in the family here are older son daughter in law and most importantly to and have your own grandson are in washington so i kind of have an anchor baby bear them and that's cathleen civilians are former governor of kansas and former secretary of the us department of health and human services she spoke at the university of kansas dole institute of politics on february twelfth two thousand fifteen as part of the dole presidential lecture series this event was moderated by dole institute director bill lacy up

next civilians answered questions from the audience at this standing room only of and you're listening to play pierre presents and kansas public radio madame secretary i suspect that many of us who came here tonight the tainted to hear your comments on your victory in two thousand seven to protect the lgbt community and your comments on what's underground acted to rescind a few days ago i frankly i have no idea why the governor felt compelled eight years after an executive order was issued to rescind an executive order that now seem to be working very well but no idea what problem he is trying to solve and kansas have passed the marriage amendment in two thousand and five i had campaigned against and spoken out against it by a majority of voters felt

that that was an appropriate thing to do what i was trying to do is in employer out a significant workforce at universities throughout state agencies was sent a strong signal that we wanted a diverse and talented workforce that people would be protected in a work environment that kansas was a tyrant state and that we were open for business and felt that was an important signal to send its notion of what i find it frankly distressing and i mean on the day that the thirty seventh state has now struck down the bay and against same sex marriage that kansas would put ourselves on the map in a recent day an executive order about a tolerant workplace so on it is distressing but i think

we need to make it clear to people around the united states this is not kansas this is not what the state was founded on this is not what we believe in and this is not an acceptable policy going forward the panel so that there is only ever two women candidates for the rest there's an artist you think america wants to see a woman vice president for a woman president already think that we the people are ready to wear a woman on the show i didn't really think that people are a i i didn't say they were linked to canada they're two women who have never gotten the nomination all the major parties for vice president there's never been a woman who has gotten the nomination for president so i but i think i think absolutely people are ready and you know hillary clinton when she ran in two thousand and eight i got eighteen million votes won twenty one states

so i think it's a demonstration that people all over this country are ready to have a woman president and they just haven't made it to the nomination yet but i don't think it has to be at a stair step for vice president to president that question like you're getting madam secretary what would you say to that kansans who are still here who have faced sort of the political and ideological heartbreak after this election cycle would you use to keep going in public policy so that you don't just disengage and then in the private sector and i am alive politics is less and it's cyclical and there's a question at least from my point you this is a and a low point i every time i think the key getting worse it does

so i hesitate to say how will you go about it i i'm hopeful that that coalition that began to come together over the course of the last election will stay together in terms of pushing for progressive policies i i even if they're not successful at the state legislative level there are lots of areas where i think there can be progress made at the city and local level of school boards around offices and get ready for the next time around them because i think you know that election results were that the incumbent governor got less than half of the vote in the last election but with a third party candidate taking a slice up the top it was able to hold his job by this was not a resounding

affirmation that the state was moving in the right direction and i think every effort needs to be made to make as much progress as possible to stop the bleeding as much as possible to hopefully look at the next legislative election and four years from now the next opportunity for statewide elections in and make a change and i think people will be ready for that change that keeping people engaged and involved is is critical during this time that there are lots of other offices they can be enormously impactful and penthouses it can be wishful i was taken by year i'm an early on that you went to a girls' school and that their girls get everything it wanted to stand with that experience have contributed to your eventual but here you have to

again i it's hard to separate the educational experience for my family experience but i didn't really know until i got to college and matt a lot of friends who had been in coed schools that i am alive girls particularly my age i hope this is changed in schools i hope that they are different message is being sent by when i most girls couldn't play sports past the six or seventh grade they just didn't exist for women and you could be a cheerleader but you couldn't be on the team a lot of my friends tell me that in their schools although it wasn't a written rule it was up in a practice rule that girls could be the treasure but they can be present there was always a guy who was the president last time so they wear and they were a lot of spoken and unspoken rules

and culture if you would just learning class would get invited to the parties allow them didn't answer the questions in math class or tried to play a different role and i i think that that that cultural environment that i was raised in it was just three of those barriers and you didn't have a set of limitations that somebody taught you covertly or overtly that might limit the choices they meet again it didn't have to be politics but i'm you know in in the workforce i went to a school that felt women should learn penmanship but never taught us to type and it turned out that was a huge gift because when i started applying for jobs i graduated from college in nineteen seventy and if you could time you were channeled one direction i type till i had no idea what i was going to do in and were aware a second

time i i remember the first person i talked to said well we think will hire you will have the right brands like with my translator and i learned a very different skill and a lot of women are coming right out of school were learning so i think they're they're just was a different set of rules and i think for me you're not waiting to ask permission that feeling that i couldn't run if somebody hadn't done before was really helpful and in now running for the office is that i do a retake one last question right back here i had a wonderful evening the comments and a quick question first time i have rheumatoid arthritis my employer doesn't provide insurance and thanks to you i have health care insurance so thank you very much and secondly for the young women and we always had the negativity

about being in politics and running for office can you tell that young women are the benefits and and the joys of being in public office and running for office i'm not that i mean i am i can't imagine anything that i could have been doing for the last thirty years and i really have been in time public office for about that thirty year period time i wear i feel that i could've worked with and better smarter more dedicated people that i could have had any sense that impact the way i felt i did in the legislature and as insurance commissioners governor and then a secretary having an opportunity to contribute in a way that was really unique i can really had great grandson whammy if you like people at anything like to i have an opportunity to contribute

end and make some decisions about the future there is no better way to do that than be engaged in and public office you don't have to do it on a full time basis you can do a lot of things on a part time basis but he adds that such a robust part of democracy and they're fabulous people involved and on and we didn't have a lot of fun along the way and and felt like we're doing that we're coming to get up every day i feel like they're making a difference and that you know there are opportunities to really impact people you would never see and that the woman who just downed mentioned her situation with being able to get health insurance i get stopped every day in the grocery store worker in an airport corridor were walking down the street by somebody who says this is about my mom's about me it's about our kids' knew

what you did that work that you did made an enormous difference in our lives and we're so grateful and their millions of those people right now who gets to do that every day but i can say there's no better feeling than that there's no better opportunity then to think you know i know that we had a school finance do some great teachers stayed in place that lead to expensive early childhood their kids today who were able to get great jobs because they went to a great public school in kansas that's a pretty pretty satisfying way to spend the day and i i can't imagine having done anything differently well secretary kerry's religious series all you've been listening to kathleen sebelius former governor of kansas and former secretary of the us department of health and human services she spoke at the university of kansas dole institute of politics on february twelfth two thousand fifteen as part of the dole presidential lecture series the first woman president to point our

focusing on women in politics this event was moderated by dole institute director bill lacy i'm kay macintyre kbr present is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas