National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy told a roomful of state legislators Wednesday not to forget women when it comes time to spend economic stimulus dollars.

While much has been said about creating shovel-ready construction jobs, Gandy said just as much focus should be placed on more female-dominated “human ready jobs,” such as librarians, teachers and social workers.

“Make sure that Kansas not only gets her fair share of the stimulus package, but she gets the share of money that is going to put Kansas women back to work alongside Kansas men,” Gandy said.

Gandy, who is in her second term as president of the national women rights organization, was visiting Lawrence to give the inaugural speech for the Jana Mackey Distinguished Speaker Series at the Dole Institute of Politics. Earlier in the day, she joined legislators and women-rights leaders for lunch at Teller’s.

Gandy encouraged legislators to change the state’s unemployment compensation laws so it could tap into an extra $69 million of federal money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

To do that, the state would have to change the base period by one calendar quarter to determine whether an applicant has earned sufficient wages to qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. The state would also have to grant unemployment insurance to people who have to leave their jobs to care for a sick or disabled child or parent.

It is women who traditionally leave their jobs to care for the sick, Gandy said.

“It’s something you don’t think about as what NOW does as an organization. But, if it disproportionately affects women, we work on it, which puts us into all kinds of places that are unexpected,” she said.

Gandy also encouraged the group to keep working to pass an equal rights amendment to the Kansas Constitution. She said that a passage of a federal amendment is “a long time coming.”