Gender politics have for the longest time acted in favor of the male gender as opposed to the female gender. Despite the fact that U.S holds a dominant political power, women in leadership have experienced great struggles in ensuring that they are equitably represented. However, besides America being a democratic nation, women still faces many hurdles in the political arena while statistics prove that very few have been able to rise to the highest executive positions. While some countries have had female presidents, U.S has never had a female president with Hillary Clinton coming close in 2016. However, Hillary took a hit from the Electoral College who chose a minority president in Donald Trump despite Hillary garnering the popular majority …show more content…
It follows the principle that the masses are sought as an ally to the various interest groups in their attempt to exert power in their special interest in this case being female empowerment (Eitzen, 2012). As a result, this principle that governs political parties and movements have set up a power elite systems where much of politics is controlled by money and corporate entities. However, the political party system remains resistant of proposed changes in favor of women representation and involvement in key decision making. Furthermore, the funding of presidential campaigns has much to do with donations from the wealthy and they in a sense control the presidential nominations. Eitzen (2012) states that this trend confirms the conflict theory where entities or persons of influence have the tendency of showing support to leaders who supposedly will ensure that their interests are safeguarded at the expense of democracy or right judgment. We see clear evidence of the influence of the power elite in the current state of government in the United States. Power in the United States is concentrated among the people who control the government and the largest corporations (Christensen, …show more content…
Gender roles are not neutral ways of meeting society’s needs but are part of the larger system of power and domination. The division of labor and power between women and men brought about by the industrial revolution caused division of labor that spilled over into politics bringing an aspect of functionalism where women are considered to have great influence in roles played. Many women have successful careers in politics because they strongly overcome these barriers and must get beyond discrimination in order to succeed. Gender inequality become inbuilt into the very fabric of our society and the mindset has to change before the situation will. There have been steps in the right direction but more has to be done to convince the power elite that a woman can be an effective President of the United
In the 1840’s, most of American women were beginning to become agitated by the morals and values that were expected of womanhood. “Historians have named this the ’Cult of True Womanhood’: that is, the idea that the only ‘true’ woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family” (History.com). Voting was only the right of men, but women were on the brink to let their voices be heard. Women pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott wrote eleven resolutions in The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments; this historical document demanded abolishment of any laws that authorized unequal treatment of women and to allow for passage of a suffrage amendment.
...r a very short period of time, specifically two years. He argues that the realization of the influence that corporations had on the government caused this movement and that the short attention span of the nation led to the rise of a bureaucratic system to regulate it. His argument answers questions left over from Filene’s article, particularly, with such divisions how was anything accomplished nationally. Paula Baker’s article in 1984 provides a look into the role of women in politics and the influence that women had in helping to launch the Progressive Movement. While her article is plagued by her inability to stick with one main emphasis, she does convey the point that women did influence the evolution of American politics. The evolution of the historical view of the causes of the Progressive movement or era has shown how history really is not set in stone.
Gerda Lerner considers differences in societies, and defines categories or stages in the historiography of American women 's history. Societies create gender roles over time, and gender roles are deeply embedded in culture. Differences shape society, from gender to race, and class. Lerner states the stages reflect how the historian 's gaze changes over time as ideas evolve. Compensatory history identifies influential women (leadership) and their activity. Contribution history reflects female contribution to existing narratives. The third stage is rewriting women 's narratives, and thus American narratives, as the inclusion of females "changes" historical narratives.
In 2008 the first woman was awarded the position of Speaker of the House, and Hillary Clinton ran for president. While Hillary had widespread support leading people to believe that the two different genders had reached equality, there were several that doubted whether or not a woman has what it takes to be a president. The women that came into power that was generally held by men, needed to perform a balancing act. This balancing act was between the characteristics of women and projecting the masculine strength and leadership needed to hold their position (Jenen 14). This problem in society has been continuing on for a long time. In the 1970’s women had no standing in academia. That women were no use to the department they were studying and
Throughout history, women have always fought to gain equal political rights, but conventional roles kept women from getting enough political representation. Many suffrage groups founded by women challenged the conventional roles of women during 1840 to 1968 with the dream of obtaining equal political representation. In 1919, the nineteenth amendment, drafted by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was passed. The 19th amendment has been desired by many women for years. Although the 19th amendment passed and women thought that they were able to be equal in politics, many women did not get equal political representation due to their conventional roles at the time period. Women were not able to achieve high roles in politics, shown through the fact that there has never been a woman president in the history of the United States. The presidency of women did not occur due to the perceptions that generally, women should be protected and hidden, not out in the open and leadin...
While women were traditionally largely responsible for child care and managing the household, men were more concerned with earning the money in order to support their families. Moreover, it is has been a widely held view, especially by male politicians, that women were not capable of evaluating political matters because they were too emotional and thus, don’t have the required powerfulness (Monique Leijenaar, 1997). Nevertheless, women’s status and integration in the political decision making process has improved continuously since most western-countries introduced women’s right to vote. Consequently, in some of these states women’s underrepresentation is not a numerical problem anymore; instead it is only a problem of the representation of their interests and values on the political agenda. This can be illustrated by the example of Denmark where women have a majority in six councils. However, women should be given more power in order to create a world in which power is exercised equitably for the benefit of
Women issues came forth when they started to be needed in the society. Women’s issues have become more prominent lately because women have gained a more important part in our society and are in a better position to get “their” issues on the American social/political agenda to be heard. Just a century ago, women were pushing for the vote and for equality. The women's rights movement applied the arguments for human rights and equality used in the abolition movement to their own lives and demanded equal consideration for women. Being excluded from public roles and being numerous, women got involved in religious activities where they were able to receive recognition. The
In the 106th United States Congress (which met from 1999-2001) only 58 of the 535 legislators were women, and only 18 were women of color. As a result, laws that benefitted women faced heavy opposition before they could be passed. In addition, women made up the minority of Supreme Court justices and presidential cabinet members at every point in the 20th century, and of the 15 presidents elected in those 100 years none of them were women.... ... middle of paper ...
To many, it may come as no surprise that men have historically, and to this date, held the majority of positions in the United States government. As of July, 2014 women comprise 18.8% of the 113th congress (Congressional Research Service, 2014), an all-time record high. Although we have come a great distance since the first congressional session, women should by no means be content with this statistic. However, it appears that the presence of a few successful women, such as Hillary Clinton, in high profile jobs, has become a tool used by corporations to conceal the discrimination nearly every woman faces when maneuvering up the hierarchy in a job that falls outside of gender appropriate occupations (Jackson,
Women of power are treated very poorly. These women of power include politicians, doctors, lawyers and businesswomen. Arguably, female politicians receive the worst treatment of all. Everything they do is constantly under media scrutiny, like what they wear and what they say, much more so than their male counterparts. The difference in the number of men and women congress members is vast, almost 5 to 1. Many women shy away from the political light for these reasons. An article, “Women in Politics”, written by Kenneth Jost, he explains the feats of women in the past 100 years:
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
The land of the free as it is known today, but is it really free? At least in the beginning of The United States of America, this was not the case. The laws of the nation allowed slavery of African Americans and took away power from women. Women were perceived to be reserved and subservient towards their husbands, otherwise they were not good women. It was not until the early-mid 19th century that women gained enough ground to begin discussing women’s rights in the United States.
According to the US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Age and Citizenship requirements are as follows: presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age or older. There is also Term limit Amendment XXII, Section 1 - ratified February 27, 1951 stating No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. These requirements do not prohibit a woman from being president, yet this has yet to occur. If Not now…
women that they could achieve anything. Margaret Smith seemed to have opened the door to the
Since the late 1700s, men have been leading the great nation of the United States successfully, and since then, the United States has risen to be one of the greatest and most prominent world powers. Many women have tried to rise up in the United States government system and claim their fair share of power but none have managed to climb high enough to snatch the presidency from their male counterparts. Recently, with the escalating popularity of a possible female presidential candidate, many have started to wonder if it is time for a female president. Seeing as how there has only ever been a male in the oval office, all mistakes made in the past by the executive branch have been attributed to the various male leaders and their staff, which has recently caused women to begin to claim that they believe a woman could do a better job. There is no doubt that women and males have different basic personality characteristics, so many are curious to see what a woman could achieve in office.