Conclusion

So in conclusion, the status of women in American politics is in a dire position.  Certainly there have been good changes in the past couple of decades since women gained the right to vote.  It took a long times to achieve this, a fight women probably should not have had to engage in, but through influential leaders, the 19^th Amendment provided women with suffrage.  Yet it is not enough that women can vote as there is also a need for women to get involved.  It will benefit the gender, and more importantly the nation.  The qualities that are more inherent to women can help the nation just as those that are more inherent to men can also do the same.  A nation needs leaders with all different qualities, as it is a balancing act.

Although past elections have not been successful for women in gaining numerically and positionally greater seats, the opposite actually, there is a new election on the rise.  There may not be any women running for the presidency, but this does not mean that they cannot gain political influence.  For one, there has been mention of a possible woman being chosen as the Vice President nomination for the Grand Old Party.  Also, there are several women that are running for election as senators and congresswomen.  This could be the real movement of change, providing for gender equality and the narrowing of the gender gap.

My goal in life is to get involved in politics.  I know that I do not want to let myself be subdued and dominated by men and I recognize that sexism that is present in the workplace.  The sexual harassment which occurs in this sphere is of course an issue as well, as I know from experience.  But none of this will stop me because I am better than this.  If I am the best person for the position I will win it.  Women need to get much more involved if they want to ever gain the same rights and the respect that they desire and deserve.

Analysis

Overall, there is a lot that can be said about the participation of women in politics, especially in the discussion of modern America.

Beginning with democracy in ancient Rome and Greece, women had very few rights.  As this was the starting point of a governmental system that seemingly stood for equal representation, it could be that this initial disrespect and sexism in ancient cultures influenced the political system against women for centuries to come.  This is certainly one explanation for why women had to wait so long to gain suffrage.

A follow up question is why women have always been at the sex at the receiving end of the short stick?  As I have mentioned in previous posts, women are portrayed as the weaker sex.  Generally, they are regarded as less rational, less reasonable and more emotional.  These are not generally considered desirable characteristics of a person in a position of leadership since they must deal calmly and collectively in times of trouble, danger and need.  Also, women are considered to be the caretaker and in charge of the household, while men were more engaged in the outside world of either manual chores, or in business.  This meant that men were more knowledgeable of happenings in their town, country and the outside world. When it came to times of war, only men fought in the army since they are biologically better suited for physical regiments and outbursts of aggression and adrenaline.  As conflicts with other nations are always possible, it makes sense to prefer a man with such military experience as a better candidate for such a leadership position.

It is very important to remember, though, that there were women leaders in the past that played remarkable roles in their respective societies.  These leaders were respected by the majority of their people and they showed men that they had the competence and initiative to rule.  I would like to propose the idea that some of these leaders are the reason why many nations in Europe and Asia gave rights to women sooner, as opposed to the U.S. where there had never been a female leader, as it was a younger nation.  It may take this nation more time to develop and accept a female leader because of this age gap.  On the other hand, though, since the U.S. is said to be the most modern nation, I don’t believe that it should take much longer.

There are other barriers that prevent women from getting involved in politics and to gain political positions, especially here in the U.S.  Most important are the seven factors that Lawless and Fox mentioned.  I believe that most of them were probably self-explanatory, but it was a great article to lay them out in the open.

I think the most important factor, out of the seven, is the consequences resulting from the failed elections of several important women in American politics.  The ones mentioned in the article were Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin.  They set a bad precedent as the first women to get into the election for president and vice-president of our nation.  They received very negative attention from the media and this is only a setback for the future of women in politics.

As for my survey, I was not particularly surprised to learn that the majority of people felt that women are as capable as men in the political realm and that most were willing to be represented by women.  Honestly, though, I did not think that there would be such a large number of people who did not find women capable.  There was that one comment, by a female that she also did not believe women to be capable which contradicted any results that I had predicted.  It is examples like this that show another problem in the system, that women do not trust their own ability.  Ideas such as this will only prevent women from getting evolved and then nothing will be able to change in the U.S. representative system.

The political system in the U.S. does need change, especially since it is behind many other nations in representation.  This was shown in many of the statistics that I presented.  As a nation that promotes democracy, and was the leader of such a political system, it is a shame to think that we are still lacking in women representatives.  Since fifty percent of the population is female, how can we claim to be fairly representative with such a small percentage of women politicians?

Women in Politics Around the World

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the United States is far behind many other nations in the world for the percentage of representation of women in the political realm.  There are also many nations which have had women as their president or prime minister. Even with several women having been involved in elections for such positions, the U.S. has clearly never achieved such a status.  Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, there were several women leaders and queens throughout history, but obviously still none in the U.S.

Currently in the world, there are 26 nations that are led by females (“Current Female Leaders”).  Most of these rules in European nations including:  England, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland (“Current Female Leaders”).  There are also several female leaders in Latin nations including: Argentina, Brazil, San Marino, Bermuda and Jamaica (“Current Female Leaders”).

Of these nations there are six in which the woman ruling entered power through the monarchial system (McCullough).  Sixteen of these women were elected to their position of power (McCullough).  Of the following, there were three that entered the position following the resignation or impeachment of the former leader and one woman was appointed (McCullough).  On top of these presidents, prime minister and royalty, there are also 10 nations that have Governor-Generals, which are politicians which are appointed by the prime minister to serve as an “acting” head of state (McCullough).  Seventeen nations have also had more than one woman presiding in the leadership spot (McCullough).

So why is the United States so far behind?  Well I have mentioned several reasons in my previous posts, but in order to answer this question, I delved even deeper into the matter.  I created an online survey and asked real American people for their opinions and comments.

Works Cited

“Current Female Leaders.” Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership. 7 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/Current-Women-Leaders.htm&gt;.

MCullough, J. J. “Female World Leaders Currently in Power.” Filibuster Cartoons. 13 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.filibustercartoons.com/charts_rest_female-leaders.php&gt;.

What Can Be Done?

I do not intend to raise concerns about such a heated topic without including suggestions on how to fix the problem of the gender gap in politics.  There are, as with most social problems, no easy solutions or else it would no longer be a problem.  Because women have been cast into the inferior position in our patriarchal society, it will take a lot of effort to overcome such barriers.  But this is certainly not impossible and I intend to show you how.

The best possible thing, I believe, is for more women to step up, get involved and run for political office.  Really, the only way to prove that something can be accomplished is to take the steps towards doing so.  If women continue to remain in the backseat, then nothing will change, but by bringing women to the forefront, we will gain more attention, hopefully in a positive light.  Politics has always been a male dominated realm, but that was really due to the fact that they had the right to be involved for centuries before women.  I cannot logically conceive that there is any inherent nature in men that attract them to politics more so than women.  We all live in this nation and all acts of the government influence our daily lives.  Especially with the recent increase of discussion about laws dealing with women’s rights, we should actually be more concerned than men.

Beyond the individual woman taking a stance, there are also many organizations that have been created with the goal to get more women involved.  As was mentioned previously, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966 with the mission to end sexual discrimination in the workplace through lobbying, litigation, as well as public demonstrations (Imbornoni).  Still today, this organization works for this goal with the help pf their Political Action Committee (PAC).  One of the main things that the NOWPAC does is to endorse female politicians for office by uploading a profile of them to their website.

Grassroots campaigns are often praised for being one of the best ways to gain influence in U.S. politics.  One such campaign for increasing women’s involvement in politics is the National Women’s Political Caucus, founded in 1971 (National Women’s Political Caucus).  They describe themselves as “a multipartisan, multicultural grassroots organization dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the political field and creating a political power base designed to achieve equality for all women,” and they provide “support to women candidates running for all levels of office regardless of political affiliation (National Women’s Political Caucus)”.  There is also the Women’s Campaign Fund which was established in 1974 with the mission of dramatically increasing the number of women in elected office who support reproductive health choices for all (WCF)”.

A final organization that I feel should be mentioned is The World Movement for Democracy.  Their goals include promoting women’s access to leadership positions, encouraging equal participation and providing voter education (The World Movement for Democracy).  The reason that this organization is particularly important is because it does this all across the world.  In my next post I will talk more about the involvement of women in other nations.

 

 

Works Cited

“About Us.” National Women’s Political Caucus, 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nwpc.org/aboutus&gt;.

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. “Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S.” Infoplease. Pearsons Education Inc., 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline2.html&gt;.

“Our Mission.” Women’s Campaign Fund (WCF), 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.wcfonline.org/pages/about-us/mission.html&gt;.

“Women’s Participation in Politics.” World Movement for Democracy, 2002. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.wmd.org/resources/whats-being-done/women%E2%80%99s-participation-politics&gt;.

 

 

 

Survey

Check out my Survey as a PDF file.

Sexual Harassment in the Political Arena

One of the reasons why many women have difficulty dealing in the workplace is because of really uncomfortable situations that can arise due to sexual harassment, and sometimes assault, by their coworkers.  Obviously this is true for all genders, but more common for women.  A telephone poll showed that 31% of women in the workplace felt that they had been sexually harassed, as compared to 7% of men (“Sexual Harassment in the Workplace”).  There are about 15,000 sexual harassment cases brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) each year and 11% involve males bringing suit against female coworkers (“Sexual Harassment in the Workplace”).

As I have stated previously, I was a victim of this myself and it made me extremely uncomfortable.  I started to dread going to my internship.  Beforehand I began to spend so much time planning what I should wear and what I should not in order to avoid this harassment.  At work I had to try to avoid the man, my superior, and then try to avoid getting harassed and inappropriately touched.  On my return home I would literally be shaking for the entire metro trip home.  I told a few of my friends about it and many suggested that I talk to someone about it.  I honestly had no idea who that “someone” was and also, he had a wife and young child and I knew I didn’t want to risk ruining the rest of his life and political career.  In the end I just left the internship after receiving their letter of recommendation for future jobs and decided I would never go back to that office.

The fact that I experienced this, even just with the first internship that I ever held goes to show that it must be relatively common.  Just consider all of the recent sex scandals that have gone on involving political figures who had harassment or assault charges brought on them, got involved in an affair, hired an escorts or hooker, posted inappropriate pictures and many other distasteful stunts.  And it is all sorts of politicians, including presidents, congressmen, senators, and governors.  Obviously some of these acts were not sexual assault, while some certainly were.  My point is mainly to prove that it does happen and other such events can make other people begin to think that sexual harassment is not necessarily wrong and only natural in the realm of political culture.  Well it is wrong, in any setting, and I strongly believe that it can be a strong factor for why there is such a gender gap in U.S. politics still today.

Works Cited

“Sexual Harassment Statistics in the Workplace.” SexualHarassmentLawFirms.com. BBB Accredited Business, 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://www.sexualharassmentlawfirms.com/Sexual-Harassment-statistics.cfm&gt;.

Problems for Women in Politics Today

Even though there have been remarkable breakthroughs for women’s rights in the last few decades, and many more women getting involved, there are still many issues that women face in trying to get involved in the political realm today.

A study conducted by Jennifer L. Lawless of American University and Richard L. Fox of Loyola Marymount University outlined seven factors that lead to the continued gender gap between women and men in U.S. politics.  These include:

1. Women are more likely to view the political and electoral environment as biased towards them (Lawless and Fox). At this time, the U.S. government has a political participation of roughly twenty percent women (Schmitz).  According to a table composed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United States still only ranks 90^th out of 186 nations for the percentage of women in a representative position in the government, as of December 2011(Inter-Parliamentary Union).  Many of the nations that held a higher percentage are certainly not well known for respecting human rights in general (Schmitz).  For a nation that led the world to democracy, and continues to be a strong proponent, this is a horrific status.
2. I certainly do not want to fail to mention that there have also been several women whose names, while big in politics, really send a shiver down many people’s spines.  The candidacies of both Palin and Clinton aggravated these perceptions of biasness (Lawless and Fox). Having a strong personality and cut throat ambition is respected in most male politicians, yet when women act in the same matter, they are often disrespected, as with the example of Hillary Clinton and even Nancy Pelosi.  In the case of Sarah Palin, her absentminded or non-concise comments made much of the population view her as an airhead woman.
3. Women believe themselves to be less qualified for office then men would believe themselves to be (Lawless and Fox).
4. Potential female candidates tend to be less confident, competitive and more risk adverse than men (Lawless and Fox).
5. Women tend to regard more aspects of modern day campaigning techniques more negatively than male politicians due (Lawless and Fox).  In this age of mudslinging politics and negative campaigns it takes aggression and assertiveness to gain pull and these traits are more likely to be lacking in the female gender.
6. Women are less likely to receive the suggestion to run for office (Lawless and Fox).  One study showed that men are 16% more likely than women to even consider running for office (Lawless and Fox).
7. Women are more confined to the household role of caretaker and wife (Lawless and Fox).  One reason that women do not seem to have the same ambition in the political realm is because of the cultural stigma placed upon them.  Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of U.N. women and past president of Chile, claims that “women want to find a balance between work, love and family (Torregrosa).”  Bachelet states how, when a man puts his work and political duty first he is respected.  If a woman does the same, yet has a family and kids, she is considered a horrible mother (Torregrosa).

There is one very important aspect that I think Lawless and Fox missed in their analysis.  Sexual harassment can exist in all workplaces and it certainly exists in politics.  In my next post I will touch more open this particular topic.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Lawless, Jennifer L., and Richard L. Fox. Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics. Jan. 2012. American University: Women and Politics Institute, Washington, DC.

Schmitz, Joelle. “Women in Politics? The U.S. Is failing.” USA Today 12 Oct. 2010.

Torregrosa, Luisita L. “Evaluating Challenges Women Face.” New York Times 6 Mar. 2012.

“World Classification.” Women in Parliaments. Inter-Parliamentary Union, 31 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm&gt;.

Famous Women in Modern American Politics

Like I stated in the last post, all of those women were extremely important in gaining rights for women in American politics.  In this post, I will talk about the women who have been directly involved in American politics.  Some of them were firsts, others were just extremely influential.

Victoria Woodhull: She was the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872 (Gill).  She ran on the ticket for the Equal Rights Party, on the platform for an eight hour workday, profit sharing, a graduated income tax and many other welfare programs (Shearer).

Jeanette Rankin:  The first woman elected into the House of Representatives, she was a Republican from Montana (Gill).  Rankin served two separate terms, from 1917-1919 and again in 1941-1942 (Gill).

Rebecca Latimer Felton:  A democrat from Georgia, Felton was appointed, not elected, she was the first woman to serve for Congress, and only for one day in 1922 (Gill).

Francis Perkins: In 1933 she became the first person to serve in a political cabinet (Gill).  She was in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cabinet as Secretary of Labor (Gill).

Condoleezza Rice: She became, “one of the most influential women in the world of global politics,” when she served under George W. Bush as his national secretary advisor in 2000 (Condoleezza Rice Bio).  She played a crucial part in establishing the most aggressive form of foreign policy that the U.S. has adopted in modern history, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (“Condoleezza Rice Bio.”).

Sandra Day O’Connor:  In 1981, O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court (Gills).  Even before this, she served on the Texas state senate and then became the first woman in the US to hold the position of majority leader (“Sandra Day O’Connor”).

Ruth Bader Ginsberg:  She was the second woman on the Supreme Court, appointed in 1993 (Brody).  She argued and was the deciding vote on many cases that dealt with important issues of women’s freedoms.

Hillary Clinton:  Although Clinton is remembered for many things, she first appeared in political limelight as the first lady to Bill Clinton.  Following the plethora of events, stories and gossip, the couple left the white house with the nation interested in whether their relationship would continue.  In 2001, Hillary was elected to the New York senate, the only first lady to also hold public office (Bio.com).  She entered into the political race as a democratic candidate for the 2009 election year.  Clinton lost the race to Obama and, following his election, he presented her with the position of Secretary of State (Bio.com).

Nancy Pelosi: She was first entered into office as a Congresswoman from California (“Nancy Pelosi”).  In 2007 she became the Speaker of the House, making her “the first woman to serve in a top leadership role in a major U.S. political party (“Nancy Pelosi”)”.

Works Cited

Brody, Seymore. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America. Jewish Virtual Library, 2006. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.ortg/jsource/biography/Ginsburg.html&gt;.

“Condoleezza Rice Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biographies. Advameg Inc., 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2012. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ow-Sh/Rice-Condoleezza.html&gt;.

Gill, Kathy. “Milestones In Politics For American Women.” US Politics. About.com, 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/a/women_milestone.htm&gt;.

“Hillary Clinton Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/hillary-clinton-9251306&gt;.

“Nancy Pelosi.” Answers.com. Answers Corporation, 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2012. <http://www.answers.com/topic/nancy-pelosi&gt;.

“Sandra Day O’Connor.” Answers.com. Answers Corporation, 2012. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://www.answers.com/topic/sandra-day-o-connor&gt;.

Shearer, Mary L. “Who Is Victoria Woodhull?” Elect to End Party Politics. 27 Oct. 1999. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/whoisvw.htm&gt;.

How the Suffrage Movement Changed Women in America

Following the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, NAWSA dissolved, but it many of the members moved to join the League of Women Voters (Barber). Maud Wood Park became the first president (Barber).

It was in the following years that the second wave of feminism arose in ways of expanding women’s right to choice, mainly through the idea of contraption and abortion.  The first step in this fight was the creation of the American Birth Control League in 1921 by Margaret Sanger (Imbornoni). This organization was soon to become known, as it is today, as Planned Parenthood.  The mission of the League was to provide information and education on how to prevent pregnancy (“Margaret Sanger”).  It was in 1923, under the presidency of Sanger, that the first clinic was opened (“Margaret Sanger”). 

In an attempt to get more involved in the political realm, Sanger formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1929 for the purpose of lobbying the U.S. government for birth control legislation (“Margaret Sanger”).  Sanger’s first success was a judicial ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for exempting physicians from the Comstock Law (“Margaret Sanger”).  The Comstock Law of 1873 was a federal law prohibiting the selling or distributing of material which could be used for abortions or as contraceptives (“Comstock Law”).  There were many other legal suits from advocates of birth control in the following years (Imbornoni).

In 1955 the first lesbian organization, Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), was founded (Imbornoi).  Although beginning with social purposes, it soon became much more politically active as women began to gain more footing in that realm.

Eleanor Roosevelt became one of the first women who held a political position in American history when President John F. Kennedy appointed her chairwoman of the newly formed President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1961 (Imbornoni).  The purpose of this Commission was to research issues relating to women and make proposals in areas including employment, education, tax laws and Social Security policies (Lewis).

The National Organization for Women (NOW), which is still a prominent organization today, was founded in 1966 (Imbornoni).  The mission of NOW is to end sexual discrimination in the workplace and they do this through political means such as lobbying, litigation, as well as public demonstrations (Imbornoni).

I find all of the above events to be some of the most important in U.S. history of political activism by women.  It is extremely relevant to my overall topic since, the idea of women’s rights remains such a highly contentious political matter.  Fighting for legislation which protects women’s rights have worked to give women more political power, as well as helped particular people gain power in American politics.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Barber, E. Susan. “One Hundred Years toward Women Suffrage Historical Timeline.” Women Suffrage Timeline. Library of Congress. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/womens_suffrage_timeline.html&gt;.

“Comstock Law of 1873.” TheFreeDictionary.com. Farlex, 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Comstock%20Law%20of%201873&gt;.

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. “Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S.” Infoplease. Pearsons Education Inc., 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline2.html&gt;.

Lewis, Jone J. “President’s Commission on the Status Of Women.” About.com Women’s History. The New York Times Company, 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/laws/a/status_women.htm&gt;.

“Margaret Sanger.” United States American History. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1676.html&gt;.