Can the United States achieve gender equality in our elected officials without relying on a gender quota? Gender Parity is another term for it that is quite popular in other parts of the world. Parity is the state of being equal and "gender" parity is the state of having equality and fairness for women in terms of our numbers in the population. The United States ranks 70 in the world in terms of gender parity in our congress and other areas of government.
In the United States women have disparity or inequality in terms of our representation. Women are 51% of the population, but we are only 17% of our congress. We only have two women justices on our Supreme Court. We have never had a woman president or Vice President. We have 6 women governors. We have 4 women in the president’s cabinet. It's been a long time since we fought for basic equal rights for women in the US (50 years) yet we are lagging in terms of equality with our elected officials.
It is known that when women achieve parity in parliaments around the world the lives of its citizens is better. Congresswoman Caroyn Maloney has written about women’s parity in our government. "Rumors of Our Progress Have been Greatly Exaggerated" She writes that things shift when women are represented with more than just one or two women. When we are in large numbers the debates start to shift. In parliaments around the world that have achieved parity the country is positively affected in terms of greater legislation for issues such as childcare, violence against women, work, healthcare etc.
Gender parity is happening in some unusual places. Boliva, is one such place. Recently in Bolivia President Morales proudly announced that they had achieved gender parity in his cabinet. He said, "My great dream has come true: half of the members of my cabinet are women, and half are men," said a visibly moved Morales when he presented his new team of ministers Saturday, the day after he was sworn in to a second term."
Bolivia: Unprecedented Gender Parity in Cabinet
http://bit.ly/cuwtPe
In Rwanda, gender parity was instituted as a gender quota. They realized that the large scale violence that occurred there was partly enabled by the lack of women in power. When they achieved parity in their parliament the women in parliament made a major change: they introduced legislation to make rape a crime. It passed and the men noted that it is legislation they would have never introduced.
There are places in the US where parity is rearing its head. New Hampshire is that place.
"Still, there's something in the air in New Hampshire. Until recently it was the only state in the country that did not provide free public kindergarten - and defiantly so. Now the state offers grants and other incentives to its local school districts to provide kindergarten classes, and only a tiny handful are still resisting. There's even a mandatory seat-belt law under serious consideration, in a state where the God-given right to bash one's own skull in has been long revered. What could be causing this unprecedented turn in Granite State politics? Here's one idea: women.”
The Matriarchy Up North, Boston Globe
http://bit.ly/qH2HE
From the UN report on Women, UNIFEM they had this to say:
“Nevertheless, higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to women’s issues. A large-scale survey of members of parliament undertaken by the Inter-Parliamentary Union recently found that over 90 per cent of respondents agreed that women bring different views, perspectives and talents to politics, and an equally large percentage of male and female respondents believed that “women give priority to those issues believed to be women’s issues.” In the words of one member of parliament, “It’s the women in politics who put women’s rights and violence against women and children on the political agenda.”
http://www.unifem.org/progress/2008/
So my question is this: How do we help to change women’s great disparity in politics so we can help make our country a more equitable place for all of us?
