Leo Hoegh & his 1930s war on working women

Lucas County's Leo A. Hoegh, also Iowa's 33rd governor, is not I'm guessing widely remembered --- and that's too bad. He served one term only, 1955-57, as a progressive Republican; too progressive for his own good, in fact. It generally was agreed at the time of his loss to Democrat Herschel C. Loveless during 1956 that he had tried to move Iowa too far too fast into the reality of post World War II-America.

Hoegh's positions on numerous issues aggravated his staunchly conservative Republican base and his willingness to raise taxes to improve Iowa roads and the state's educational institutions not only annoyed Republicans but allowed Democrats to play the tax-and-spend card against him. It was a politically fatal combination.

You can read more about Governor Hoegh in this Lucas Countyan post from 2014: The governor next door: Leo and Mary Louise Hoegh.

So it's kind of unfair to reach back into Hoegh's pre-war past --- when he, too, was a staunchly conservative Republican and state representative (from 1936-1942). But keep in mind that Hoegh was called from the Legislature to active duty in the U.S. Army during 1942, launched into a distinguished military career that resulted in multiple honors --- and returned home to develop new attitudes.

Hoegh's  hobbyhorse of the 1939 legislative season is unthinkable now --- a bill that would have banned married women from holding state jobs if their husbands were earning enough to support them both. He didn't have much luck with the bill, but the fact that he introduced it and advocated for it says a good deal about the future governor's early outlook and, perhaps, the culture he was operating in.

Here's a report on the bill, published in The Chariton Leader of Feb. 7, 1939, under the headline, "Hoegh's attempt to get wives off payroll defeated."

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Efforts of State Representative Leo A. Hoegh to take wives off the state payroll if their husbands have adequate employment were thwarted again in the Iowa House Monday.

Hoegh, a consistent critic of the practice of giving jobs to married women whose husbands can support them, joined with other house members in presenting a bill to ban married women from state jobs if their husbands earn more than $1,200 a year.

The measure also would have barred from state employment anybody in the family if the father and mother earn a combined total of $1,800 a year. An additional $150 leeway was to be permitted for each dependent.

The house committee on departmental affairs recommended indefinite postponement for the bill. Chairman of the committee is S.E. Prall (R), Warren County.

Working wives also scored a victory earlier in the session when the house voted to allow wives of legislators to work as committee clerks for their husbands.