Women in Government

Dr. Laura Barberena was able to address some of the points which dieter and hinder women’s role in politics. She noted that one of the main reasons why few women put themselves forward for election is said to be a lack of female role models in politics. This is a great point. If someone does not see someone else like themselves succeeding in a certain field, they are less likely to jump into the field (i.e. women in STEM fields).

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.

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

The most adequate of women are being scared away from the political race because of the sexist attacks against women in government. The most suitable women look at past candidates and witness the attacks on them and choose to avoid the political

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

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.

Some people believe women are not socialized in a way that prepares them to hold political powers. Some view politics as a masculine domain. This is a gender stereotype. It is the public’s perception that women cannot make a difference in politics which is often influenced by the

The U.S. Congress is only 17% female. As a result, the decisions made by congressmen will tend to favor men. “We are shortchanging voices that are urgently needed in public forms from ever getting to the table.” (Booker) I do not think that it is merely the media to blame for girls not wanting to become involved in politics. I feel as though girls should be leaders in politics only if they want to. Although we need way more female representatives, this does not mean that girls should be forced to do something that they are not interested in.

The article “Moving Beyond the Gender Gap” by Abby M. McCloskey discusses the gender gap when voting. In a national election, more women vote for the Democrat nominee rather than the Republican nominee. In the past, Mitt Romney lost the women’s vote by twelve points to President Barack Obama. In the most recent election, Hillary Clinton won the women’s vote by twelve points. When broken down by race and ethnicity, the gap grew to ninety points among black women and forty-two points among Latina women.

Women are numerically underrepresented in United States politics. Though people may see famous faces of women in politics around them, a mere 17 percent of leaders of the Federal government in the United States are women. Not only, at the Federal level are women underrepresented, but also at the state and local levels. Only in six states are there female governors, and members of city hall are predominately male in 92 out of the 100 largest cities in the continental U.S. Since the 1970’s the percentage of women in high political offices had been increasing, but in the last several election cycles there has been no net increase. The United States House

The article named “Eight challenges for woman candidate” presents the disadvantage of women as candidates for election. It shows that running for office as a woman is different than it is for a man because voters expect more from women and afford them different advantages. And even though voters say it is important to have more women in office, it doesn’t always mean they will actually vote for women. The author gives eight challenges for woman candidates below:

Women have always had so many different and interesting behavior patterns; whether they are patterns at home, at work, or even at the polls. Choosing this topic was easy, women are very unique about everything, and I was curious to see the differences in the way we vote compared to men, the gender gap. With the help of peer reviewed articles and other research, I am planning to explain the gender gap as well as other voting behaviors that women perform. The peer reviewed articles that I chose will be discussed in the following order: “The Gender Gap: When an Opinion Gap is not a Voting Bloc” by Linda Bennett, “How Do Female Spouses’ Political Interests Affect Male

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.

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,

A significant body of research has been developed in political science to demonstrate that the presence of women in political office changes the substance and process of policymaking and politics. From the state to the national level, women elected officials have expanded the scope of the policy agenda and brought more diverse perspectives into legislatures (Kathlene, 1999). We also know that at the state level women legislators work more on women’s policy concerns than their male counterparts and offer programs to support those concerns (Carroll, 2001; Thomas and Welch, 1991; Thomas, 1997; Little, Dunn, and Dean, 2001). Similarly, at the national level, women legislators broaden the issues under consideration and move women’s issues onto the agenda (Wolbrect, 2000 and 2002). Further, female legislators actually introduce most legislation on women’s issues and co-sponsor more such legislation than their male counterparts (Wolbrect, 2002; O’Connor2001).