Essay On Parity In Congress

Gender parity and equal representation in both houses of Congress is still a vexing issue that dates back to the founding of the Republic. Even with the ratification of the 20th amendment in 1920; women are still disproportionately represented in Congress. The vast majority of seats in state legislatures, governorships, mayoral offices, and of course Congress are held by men. Fox and Lawless stated that women fare just as well as men in fundraising and vote totals. But despite this supposed lack of discrimination women do not have equal representation in Congress. The article suggests that this could relate to incumbency advantages, eligibility pool of women in law and business, and candidacy emergence. The article states that "Analyses also point to the fact that, since their entry into the public sphere has not traditionally been embraced, women candidates
It's very fascinating, but also disconcerting how the selection process can engender unequal representation. It will be a very difficult task to break this process and have our society evolve to a point where women will have parity in Congress. Affirmative action can only go so far to encourage women to enter the fields of law and business and expand the eligibility pool. This toxic and sexist culture/environment needs to change first so that negative perceptions of women entering the public arena will no longer impact the political system. Gender socialization and stereotypes need to be properly refuted and the public needs to be educated so that this hostile environment can evolve into a more conducive setting so that the self perception of women will improve dramatically. And this will better the selection process and more women will enter the political field and eventually the political gap will finally be closed. But, first the pay gap has to be ameliorated before the political system can