U.s. Politics And Elective Offices

In addition to the arguments above there are some very strong disadvantages to this system such as it excludes women from the legislature. The ‘most broadly acceptable candidate’ syndrome also affects the ability of women to be elected to legislative office because they are often less likely to be selected as candidates by male-dominated party structures. Although the evidence across the world suggests that women are less likely to be elected to the

In contrast, American women hold a minor role in political participation. With only 84 of 435 seats, women face more challenges in American politics than men. (Catalyst) For example, we can look at the most recent election where Hillary Clinton was the victim to many implicit gender bias’. In order to elect the most qualified person to lead a country shouldn’t gender be taken out of the equation? Plato’s approach focuses on electing those who are most qualified and justly, eliminates gender as a factor.

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

Numerous systemic barriers are preventing women from entering the political workforce including (but no limited to): family, the brutality of politics, male domination, stereotypes and traditionalism. Family plays probably the most important role in women’s decision-making on whether to enter politics.

genders. Women may have the same political rights, however they are still degraded and seen as inferior to men. So, women in politics are now trying to prove that they are just as capable as men are. However, their attempts are being suppressed due to the inappropriate comments against them. Sexist remarks in the media against female political candidates is the reason why there is a smaller amount of women in government.

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

There have been many significant strides since 1970 when women occupied almost no major elective positions in U.S. political institutions. Today’s society has reflected remarkable changes in women’s equality and acceptance. In 2008, Hillary Clinton received 18 million votes when she fought for presidency of the Democratic Party . In 2011, Sarah Palin was listed at the top of her candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. However, women are consistently being underrepresented in the political world reaching beyond just the federal level. Clyde and Thomas attest the underrepresentation to two basic reasons: lack of political ambition as well as historic exclusion of women from professions that tend to lead toward the political arena . Three central barriers contribute to the difficult road ahead for the

As well, a woman’s place in the government was significantly different to a man’s. Geraldine Ferraro says, “For all that my female colleagues and I had achieved, we still had to more, work harder, and produce more to be judged the same as men” (Ferraro 57). She also says, “So much had changed…I arrived in Congress…I had joined the Congress Women's Caucus. But there were far to women in the House and Senate-only eleven Democrats and six Republicans to sway 435 votes” (Ferraro 41). Her evidence supporting the gender positions is evidenced by the ratio of men to women serving jobs in the government. She even goes on to acknowledge that if a woman works harder and is more efficient compared to the quality of a man’s work, at the end of the day

Wilson points out that women are steadily gaining traction in legislature, but at a severely slow pace when compared to other Western democracies. Over 30% of all Democratic state legislator are women. Conversely, fewer than one in six Republican state legislators are women. The chances of a woman winning or losing a political election is no greater than a man’s chances.

Swers evaluates whether female representatives in Congress are more inclined to support and promote women’s issues than male representatives. Using original data regarding women’s issue legislation in the 103rd and 104th Congress and qualitative data in the form of survey questions, Swers concludes that gender does in fact make a difference. After controlling for institutional factors and party affiliation, Swers finds that female legislators were more likely to introduce social welfare

Over 49.6% of the population is female, and yet in 2015 “Women currently hold 104, or 19.4%, of the 535 seats in the 114th U.S. Congress” (Center for American Women and Politics). Despite this odd split between population and politics, a little

It is only recently, all things considered, that women are playing larger roles in the United States political system. However, there is still a large gap in gender representation between men and women. Some women, like politician Wendy Davis, are working diligently to close this gap and represent issues important to women. Despite the progress that is slowly being made, there are still large issues that face women in politics today, and under the scrutiny of the public eye it can be difficult for women to prove their readiness for leadership roles (though this should not be the case). In this paper I will be analyzing Wendy Davis' campaign for

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,

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