Sexism In Politics

Though women take up 51% of America’s population, we have not yet elected our first female president or moved past the low percentage of women officeholders. In Congress, women only hold 19% of the seats and 20% for the Senate. Women struggle to obtain especially the executive office and gender trait stereotyping plays a big role in such matter. From A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics, it mentions the comparison of women in politics and women in marriage. When women enter the political field, they expect to be treated equally as party men, similar in a marriage where duties and roles of husband and wife differ but their contributions are important. However, in reality, men still hold more power and make all the important
decisions and as for women, the quote, “as in a bad marriage, women did not run the home; they were largely servants”, is best described for their circumstance. Women are given more difficult tasks and very few individuals are accepted for their ability. In addition, many male politicians are not comfortable with party women that did not contain the “traditional feminine qualities” and acted like men. Therefore, women that are seen often running for offices are not women “who were aggressive, personally ambitious, or who had competing loyalties.” Feminine qualities are part of the necessity for party women to uphold men’s expectations in order to succeed in a male-dominated field. Ironically, these feminine qualities are also one reason as to why women aren’t viewed as good candidate for executive office. Certain characteristics are strongly valued by voters when it comes to electing the executive officeholders such as strong, tough on crime, calm and collected under press, rational, tough, and decisive. Characteristics such as kind, collaborative, good with children, forgiving, moral, friendly, and non-aggressive are less valued and deemed as feminine. When women break out of the gender trait stereotypes, they are more likely to be attacked and unfavored by society. On the contrary, women must deviate from the stereotypes in pursuance of the executive office. This topic aims attention to bias toward women in politics and how it reflects sexism as a hindering factor for women when pursuing opportunities in our society.
The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal” and unfortunately, Americans has taken it in the literal sense. Whether unconsciously or intentionally, for centuries women are deemed incapable of achieving the same level of achievements as men, which in this case being elected as president and lead America. They struggle to stray away from the gender stereotypes as they face prejudice in their career and during elections, where criticism comes from both male politicians and citizens. With the low percentages of women in the Congressional and Senate seats, it is obvious that men still dominate in politics and will continue to do so, because they do not want women to surpass and play a big role in the government. However, male politicians aren’t the only ones that are biased toward women in politics. Citizens, especially voters, are also biased when it comes to choosing their representatives in the government. Similar to the overall view, the idea of women being in control and elected to the executive office does not appeal to the general population of voters. The belief of women having lesser ability to deal with issues on a “man’s level” due to their feminine characteristics has deeply embedded in the minds of Americans. One example that demonstrates this is the catchphrase, “make me a sandwich”, that was popularized in 2012. This sexist expression is mainly used by males to mock women and to indicate that they belonged in the kitchen. Furthermore, they are being looked down upon as they are considered submissive and lenient compared to men’s dominance and stubbornness. They are believed to be more emotional and will easily break under pressure. Another way of viewing this issue is the fault in our fixed ideology of male supremacy in this country. Women are seen as
the inferior ones, the weaker component of the society and are supposed to be under the care of men. When women start to go against people’s expectation, the response doesn’t get any better. Candidate Michele Bachmann is nicknamed as the Queen of Rage due to her forceful style, on the other hand, if Bachmann was a man instead, surely she would have had a better outcome in the primary and would even be labeled as a tough and strong candidate. All things considered, such bias towards women should be ended and women are to be given an equal opportunity to change society for the better. Women can be tough, rational, decisive, and other traits that are dubbed under the assumed masculine trait stereotypes, because men are not always calm and collected when it comes to important decision making. The 2016 presidential election proves that women also have the potential to lead a country, as America finally has a female candidate that was so close to becoming the next president. However, we shouldn’t be too surprised with the outcome when it comes to politics being sexist and voters blinded by gender stereotyping. It will be a long battle before female politicians are viewed and treated equally as men, given the same opportunity and accepted by the public. We need to influence the public to recognize female politician’s capability that can rival male politicians in governing. First of all, we must establish a sturdy foundation of American politics in the younger generations and teach students the importance and structure of the government. Instead of glorifying the successful male politicians, educators also need to focus on the women that created history and help shaped the country we have now. States should include Political Science as mandatory course in colleges to help students develop an understanding of politics from the past to present time and how it will influence our future. Regardless of the idea of modifying the current college curriculum to encourage future generations to approach politics in a different way, the most important is to have females step up to the world and destroy sexism that has been haunting our society. Losing a potential (female) president that can accomplish more great things, history will repeat itself if the general population doesn’t realize there are an equal amount of women as men that are just as qualified to represent and lead them. Females should no longer comply to society’s feudal stereotype and start to push themselves out to take part in reforming America.