The Argument For Equal Representation Of Women In Politics

Allowing women to vote, wage increases, employment and parental leave have been major winning battles for women in Australia and all around the world, but the fights not over yet. Equal representation in politics is a new critical battle that must be tackled head on. It is essential for women to be able to express their opinions on the political course of Australia.

What was the most underrepresented social group in the elected assemblies of the world? whether is the minority ethnic, religious groups or the poor? According to Putman’s statistic, the answer was “women”. (Putnam 1976 cited in Megyery 1991) Statistics have shown that although women around the globe occupy more than one half of the population, very small proportion become political elite. Different from what women have encountered, man tends to dominate many spheres in life which includes electoral politics. Such gender disparity happens everywhere not just in Canada. Ever since Canadian women suffrage and the right to candidacy was achieved, they have made a couple strides in political arena, yet not as many as they wish with the existence of electoral glass ceiling standing

In reality, however, women are equally and in some ways more qualified to hold leadership positions than men. Although there is no single explanation for why women are underrepresented in politics, the gender gap in the political arena stems from the lack of female participation in elections as women are often discouraged or feel threatened by society to run for political office. Young women who aspire a career in politics encounter both structural and emotional barriers, which prevent them from running for political office. Women battle issues of self-confidence, face stereotypes, and derive false perceptions of political campaigns, all of which broaden the gender gap in the political

The struggle for women to be treated equally as humans never ends. In fact, great strides have been made since the mid-19th century: the first organization to advocate for and draw the world’s attention to females’ equality – namely the International Council of Women – was formed by the U.S and several countries in Europe. And, fortunately, dedication to pursuing women’s rights is still unchanging even at present. Hillary Clinton, a well-known American politician, has devoted her career to supporting women: selected as the first chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, she aimed to provide all women equality and to secure their full and equal political participation in democracy. At the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women’s Plenary Session, held in Beijing, China, in 1995, Hillary Clinton’s effective use of repetition in her speech, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” calls the general public’s attention to the importance of women’s equality, emphasizing women’s worldwide contribution and the violence from which women have suffered.

This essay will argue why Canada should take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament. Having an adequate representation of women in parliament would be a huge turning point for women and allow their voices to be heard. Each woman holds a different view, just like men do. Each gender and person will bring their own view forth and allow for a diverse House. The issue is that women are not getting adequate representation, and therefore are not being able to represent their views. Men have a much larger congregation than women, therefore overpowering the views/ideologies of them. In Canada, everyone strives for equality, and the best place to start is to take a substantive approach to women’s representation in parliament.

Swers, M. L. (2002). The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress. Chicago: London: University of Chicago Press.

At the beginning of the twentieth century women had very little role in the United States in general. They could not vote, could not own land, could not serve on juries, or hold elective office. But as the twentieth century continued, women moved into a more active role in American, but were still not equally represented. Although today they make up fifty-one percent of the nation, women make up less than one-fifth of government in the United States. With such a minor role in government, it leaves the issues that revolve around women to be addressed by people who are not women. If there was a way to regulate the amount of men, and women, in the government, these issues could be addressed by the people they affect more. Women have faced similar problems in other countries, but some have found a solution. Some countries have introduced quotas in order to monitor and control the amount of men and women in

In Canada, women comprise over 50% of the population and the fact that they are not present in halls of government in proportion to their population reflects poorly on our democracy. The significant under-representation of women in Canadian legislation has severe consequences that are symbolic; it deprives our government’s policy-making process the input of a significant portion of Canadians. A system that does not adequately represent its majority population calls into question the legitimacy of our democratic institutions. Women’s participation in formal politics is crucial because the quantity of representation will influence the quality of representation in Canadian legislation. It reflects poorly on democracy because the minorities, the white heterosexual men in power, are regulating the majority population. Women need to advocate for mirror representation and not settle for a quota. A quota in our legislation is not enough to ensure sufficient representation of women in decision making. When we have a few women in our legislation they no longer fight for those who elected them in the first place. Instead they are pressured by the majority of men in power to conform to the culture and practices that continue to oppress those who elected them in the first place. When there are enough women in legislature to mutually support one another, we will begin to see decisions that improve citizen’s quality of life. In this essay I will argue that political parties need to ensure

It is a known fact that politics are very competitive. According to Fox and Lawless women are much more likely than men to think that the political landscape is extremely competitive and biased against women. In a study the authors conducted women are twenty-five percent more likely to think that the landscape

When Sylvia Bashevkin wrote “ the higher, the fewer” it was to indicate a pattern in women's political participation. The number of women in politics drops as one moves upward to the upper tiers of government, federal or provincial. The gap between the number of women involved in politics to the number of women in the country is still too wide. Over half the population is female and yet less than 25% were Members of Parliament in 2011. As of 2016 only 31% of senators were female. This gap highlights the need to continue to pursue the feminist movement.

Women are underrepresented in political offices at the national and local levels. Currently, only 17 women serve in the United States Senate out of 100 seats and only 16 percent of the United States House of Representatives are female. Why is this a problem? Legislatures, the House of

The political arena is a tough place to be part of, especially during a campaign. Your opponent and their supporters are constantly watching your every move with the hopes that you will make a mistake, or that somebody will find some detrimental dirt on you. Now imagine also being a woman, not only will you have to face the hardships that male candidates cope with but you will also have to handle the adversity based on your gender and the stereotypes that go along with being a female. Women have to be prepared to confront the fact that they may not even be wanted in that setting. For example Margaret Carlson stated,

The fundament purpose of a representative democracy and the legislative system is representing its constituencies. The perfect legislature body would equally represent the gender demographic makeup of the district it represents. For example, if there are 100 men and 100 women in a district, and there are 2 legislatures for every 200 hundred residents within each district, then one woman and one man must be represented for the 2 available legislative positions regardless of their party affiliation. This equality within the legislature would better sever the legislative function; balancing power, representing constituencies and lawmaking. Currently women make up almost 50% of the work force and pay taxes to facilitate the financial expenditures of the appropriations and tax measures passed in the legislature. The statics reflect that “women

In 2012, Only 12 women reached parliament that’s 2% of the whole parliament women do not represent only 2% of society (Daily news). Women are never placed in political representation in the Egyptian politics which is a sign of no democracy in Egypt. Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Although, the Egyptian constitution claims that Egypt is a democratic and developed society, women are not equal to men when it comes to political representations. Women have the right for equal representation in the governing bodies of Egypt. It’s also commonly believed that when it comes to multitasking women can do it better. Researchers proved that when women and men work on a number of simple tasks such as searching for a key or doing easy math problems at the same time, women significantly outperformed the men.

New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893, however, since then we have dropped to 27th when it comes to gender representation in government, out of 188 countries. One of the many reasons as to why women are under represented in parliament can be linked to the issue of the political obstacles that face women. This is when they want to be in parliament, women whom are in parliament, and the many women who this is not an option for due to lack of opportunity. Women have to face this “masculine model” of politics and government. Men are dominant in parliament, meaning that political life revolves around male norms and values (Shvedova). This can be extended, politics is very much about competition and confrontation. Rather than politics being