Silvia Tslaseca Analysis

Many groups of people throughout the history of the United States have fought to change for change and fairness for their groups. Women have been among the courageous groups that have forged paths to create better lives for themselves and future generations of women.

In fact, fifty-seven percent of women in the United States participate in the workforce today. This states that women in the U.S are more involved in having a job, and becoming more courageous. “Don't let being a woman hold you back from the leader that you're destined to be.” This quote was said by Jamie Farsnel, who is a successful busnesswoman. This testimony provides encouragement to women from some of Farsnel’s observations and experiences. The motivation will reach the success that a woman wants, the hard work will reach goals that a woman has, and the positive optimism that a woman may have could reach others in need for inspiration. In one brief story, a woman, who was at the age of forty-five, was a political business women, and worked for the government. In the year of 2013, a thought finally came into her mind. The thought was that she remembered her long-lost dream ever since she was a little girl. That dream was becoming the president of the United States of America. She knew she had the education for it, she knew she had the skills of becoming president, and she knew she could accomplish her dream if she worked hard at it. But would other people refuse to vote for her as a candidate in the process of becoming president just because she is a woman? The thoughts

Many women have faced difficult paths to get elected into office whether they are Hispanic, African American, or White. Even if they had all the qualities or they were overqualified they failed based on their gender, race, or lack of confidence in themselves.

Equality for women has been an ongoing debate for years. Most people recognize the inequality for women in areas besides the business world. However, women in politics is one of the most well-known topics. Until a few years ago, the thought of having a woman as president was absurd. It wasn’t until the 2008 election that the idea of a woman for president would change drastically. Both Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton decided to run in the 2008 presidential election. Although neither of the two were elected, they both still made a dramatic impact on the views of women in politics. Michelle Bernard states that the 2008 election was a breakthrough for women in general. However, Marie Cocco disagrees, stating that the loss was a major disappointment for women. Although both authors feel strongly about their

Women were not role players in the national government until 1917, but over nearly the past century, the impact women have had on Washington’s politics has begun to unfold into the current role women play in the US government today. Before 1917, no woman had ever been elected to serve and represent their state in Washington, D.C., although many had tried. In 1917, we saw our first congresswoman on the national stage, and throughout the year’s woman have played many roles in government. These roles include service in the House of Representatives, the Senate, many presidents’ cabinets, and other vital roles in our government. Many women have tried and some have come close, but, no woman has ever been able to grab the most illustrious role, the President of the United States. For that matter, no woman has been elected Vice President of the United States. Women will continue to try until they prevail and are chosen to serve as the President of the United States.

According to the most recent US census in 2015, 50.8% of the population of the United States are in fact, women. Despite the sex ratio essentially being equal, female representation in government is not equal. A correlation is women in the federal bureaucracy and (generally) in federal politics did not occur until the early 1900s. For example, through the determination of Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others strong women, women were brought the right to vote in the United States by the nineteenth amendment (1920). By this initial crack in the gender barrier, women were given the understanding of the importance of women in politics as well as the chance for their voice in politics. The crack has only furthered over time as more women are involved with the bureaucracy.

Women have an impact on the political realm because of their different leadership styles, their different approaches to how to be a legislator, and the different way they prioritize issues based on their unique perspectives. These impacts are left out if women are not in office and do not have a seat at the table. This lack of descriptive representation leads to a lack of substantive representation on various policy issues such as public policy in education, the wage gap, and family law, as well as in reproductive rights, and gendered violence. Without women in office, these problems will continue to rise as men tend to not prioritize these issues which leaves them unheard or unresolved. I argue that institutional barriers such as term limits, committee placements, party platforms, and professional legislatures only add to this problem. This is because once women are in office they still have very little say because of their lack of leadership roles or high committee placements, their obligation to vote the way their party does, and commitment to their family which keeps them

It is well known that there are fewer women serving in U.S. politics and elective offices than there are men. According to the 2010 census, women make up 50.8% of the population, yet in 2016 women comprise only 19.4% of Congress, 24.7% of statewide elective executive offices, and 24.5% of state legislatures (Howden and Meyer 2011; Center for the American Woman and Politics [CAWP] 2016). In fact, in the world ranking of women in national legislatures the United States comes in at number 95 out of 191 (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2016). Clearly there is a dearth of women serving in elected office, but it is not clear why this is the case.

Women have been running for president and vice president throughout history, however in recent decades we have seen substantial progress globally in women’s access to electoral office. “Women in politics explores the trajectories of women in and into politics. It injects into a debate dominated by numbers a much-needed focus on the women who run for office, on what motivates and helps them, as well as the barriers and obstacles that they face in entering the arena of formal politics” (Tadros 2014).

Politics are generally a male’s job; the Inter-Parliamentary Union says the U.S. is 95th in the world based on how many women are in political positions of power. This frightening statistic is in part due to the bias that political women don’t act like “women”. In fact, Jennifer Lawless, director of Women & Politics Institute, supports this by saying, women in politics are considered 70% less compassionate than women in general and 90% less gentle and loving. This striking statistic shows just how misunderstood women in politics are. Scholar, Olivia Bartruff, says that the lack of understanding of political women causes women to look past politics as a field. Women see the political field as being more of a man’s field, so they don’t try to infiltrate it. Even though, the Women & Politics Institute School of Public Affairs says that women are just as likely as their male counterparts to win, but 16% less likely to consider running for an office position. Women don’t believe that they can win, so they don’t try; yet as Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet, said, ”none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” Politics is run by men, and although women have just as good of odds to win as men do, biases are restricting them from even

Our world is surrounded by media. Media plays an enormous role in affecting the way we perceive gender and gender roles. Media as well as communications are known to be the key elements of how people live their life in the modern age. The media can be a very inviting place, since it has so many things inside of it that appeals to people worldwide. At the same time, the media can be a cruel, judging and corrupt area that can be scary to involve yourself with. That being said, the mass media has had its history with harsh stereotyping, particularly when dealing with women. Many people within the media view women as a gender that is only allowed to be at home, whether it is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or being a slave to their male counterpart. Even with women who work inside of the media are usually overlooked, bashed by their appearance and do not get an equal opportunity as men do in order to succeed in life. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but there are still a myriad of problems that women face today, whether in the media or life in general.

Not only in the media, but in television and movies as well, women are often sexualized and looked at as the inferior gender to men. Unfortunately, some of these issues are stemming from the broadcasting stations themselves. A Landmark survey held in 2011 with over 500 media companies all over the world showed that only one-third of the journalism workforce is made up of women, despite the fact that women make up a majority of communication school graduates (Wihbey). There needs to be a conscious effort among journalism networks to balance men and women in the workplace. If it is just assumed that it is equal for everybody, that is what started these issues in the first place and the problem will only continue (Griffin). More women leaders in a newsroom would be effective in order for them to make other women feel more comfortable and not have them feel shut out or silenced by men. The percent of female television news directors is at a staggering 30 percent, which is shameful being that 51 percent of our country is made up of women (“WMC,” 2015). The reason there is such a strong negative stereotype towards women in the media is because there is not enough female representation in the newsroom and once there is, then there will be an entirely different perspective and stereotypes will

According to Hyla Chatham “As of 2015 women only represent 18.5% of Congress. Twenty Four states have never elected a woman governor. Roughly 84% of countries including Afghanistan guarantee gender equality in their constitutions. The US constitution does not. Lincoln said “...so that the government of the people, by the people, for the people…” but if only 50% of our population represent us, then it’s not “the people”anymore. Ecuador, Liberia, Germany, Switzerland, Haiti, Canada, China, and many more countries have elected female leaders, but the US has not. This is saying that women lack political power just because of their gender. And almost all of the countries in the world have made sure that women have equality and yet we haven't. This is important because it shows how much women have been put out of political

Even though women have increased their interest in politics, their involvement remains slow-moving almost at a standstill. Participation of women in US government is only a mere 18 percent. There are several factors that have impacted the female participation in the politics. These factors include their responsibility for childcare, their disbelief that they qualify for the position, and they lack confidence in their ability to perform the duties of the position.

There has been a lot of research done on the influence media can have on society, in particular the degrading images of women that are often seen in media. Since the second wave of the women’s rights movements these images were the object of scrutiny and an easy example of how women were viewed. In modern society where women have made many strides towards equality why are there still instances in popular media were women are negatively depicted? Have women come as far as they think? The popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory negatively depicts the female characters by reverting to a binary view of gender, in which the female characters are lacking, they can be beautiful or smart however they cannot be both.