Full Text of the Excerpt

WALTER DE VRIES:

Has there been a change in the last twenty-five years in the role that women have been playing in Texas politics?

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Some. I think that you are going to see a good deal more. I guess, and I don't say that it is the be-all and end-all, and I that's why I don't particularly start with it, but since my first coming into elective politics in '68, I think that I have probably seen as much or more change there than any other area.

WALTER DE VRIES:

Is that going to continue?

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Oh, sure.

WALTER DE VRIES:

How about in the other southern states? How would you compare Texas to the other ten states of the old Confederacy?

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Well, I'm only in and out of those. For example, I would say that Texas . . . it's a generalization, but it's ahead of the southern states.

WALTER DE VRIES:

Ahead of all of them?

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Well, O.K., you know about North Carolina . . . well, all right, I'll take the number of . . . I guess that the first way that you could measure it is the Equal Rights Amendment. Now, we'll see if there is a serious recision . . .

WALTER DE VRIES:

It's under attack.

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Yes, it's under attack now and we will see. When a legislator started that in '73, he didn't get very far. But this is a much more organized attack and I suppose that in this state we had it in the state constitution because we passed that in '72, I don't know of any state of the old Confederacy that has an equal rights amendment in their own constitution.

WALTER DE VRIES:

What other indices would you cite?

FRANCES FARENTHOLD:

Well, I suppose those in public office. And I would have to go maybe to the legislature and I think there are now seven women in the Texas legislature . . .