Representatives of the House of Representatives speak after the dress code debate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — There is controversy over what women can wear to work in the Missouri House Chambers. Representatives recently passed House Rules that included an updated dress code requiring women to wear a jacket over their clothes.

Lawmakers said it was standard for MPs to vote on House Rules at the start of a new legislature. All changes to the rules are displayed.

After the to Associated Press, Representative Ann Kelley introduced an amendment that describes what women can wear on the home floor. The Associated Press said Kelley wanted to align women’s dress codes with men’s.

“The dress code for men is very specific,” said representative Mike Stephens. “We’re supposed to wear suits with shirts and ties and dress shoes. It wasn’t quite as accurate for the women.”

The Associated Press said Kelley recommended women’s business attire, specifically a jacket with blazers.

“Rules in previous years allowed women to wear two layers of clothing,” said House Minority Leader Crystal Quade. “We could wear a dress with a blazer or a cardigan as long as we had two layers and covered our arms. The change, which came from a colleague across the aisle, was to make it so women only had to wear blazers.”

Representatives, after nearly an hour of discussing the dress code, said the change was set out to allow women to wear jackets, such as blazers or cardigans, over their clothes. Some lawmakers say the talk has dragged on for too long.

“As the details became more debated, the kind of absurdities became more obvious,” Stephens said. He said it was important to establish the dress code for all members of the House. “I believe in the professional decorum of the house, and I believe that the dress is an important part of that.”

MP Quade also agreed that lawmakers had debated the dress code for too long.

“Why do we spend more than an hour debating what elected women must wear on the floor of the house when we should be debating how our citizens who live in Missouri and are wheelchair bound are unable are to enter the building? , that was an amendment we wanted to talk about,” Quade said. “I’m grateful that we added an amendment to the amendment to allow cardigans again, but I didn’t expect it to last that long.”

Quade said in the Senate that dress code rules are different. She said women can wear long-sleeved clothing without a jacket as long as their arms are covered.

“The dress code comes up quite often,” Quade said. “But what we usually discuss actually goes further in terms of what we’re allowed to wear.”

Quade said dress code doesn’t affect day-to-day decision-making. However, she believes this will raise more questions from voters.

“I hope that the nationwide attention to the fact that they made it more restrictive in the Missouri legislature for women to just go to work and function draws attention not only to that, but to what we do in Jefferson City do taxpayers’ money,” Quade said. “I’m really confident that this discussion and the media attention it is giving encourages people to hold us accountable and to pay attention to what’s happening in their state capital.”

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/house-representatives-speak-out-following-debate-about-dress-code/ Representatives of the House of Representatives speak after the dress code debate