Compass Gender Women's History Special: Power, Politics, and Prejudice

Women participate in a parade for suffrage in 1913. (US National Archives - Flickr)

The women’s suffrage movement in the United States began more than a century ago when Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. However, the push for women in politics has never been confined to the US. In fact, New Zealand became the first state to grant women the right to vote in 1893 after receiving a suffrage petition with close to 32,000 signatures, beating the United States by almost 30 years. Some countries were slower to follow suit than others; Saudi Arabia granted suffrage to women only five years ago. Today, Vatican City is the only place where women are still legally excluded from the voting process.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

While the presence of women in politics has increased over time, women in political positions are still a minority. In 2017, women represented fewer than 10 percent of U.N. member states. In addition, female heads of state generally hold office for shorter periods of time than male heads of state. 

Kersti Kaljulaid is Estonia’s first female head of state. (Wikimedia Commons)

The disparities between the representation of women and men in public offices around the world stems from certain societal forces that work to keep women out of political life. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the top five obstacles for women entering politics are domestic responsibilities, prevailing cultural attitudes, lack of familial support, lack of confidence, and lack of finance.

The Law Commission of Canada attributes the lack of female representation in the Canadian government to the country’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system. FPTP creates a winner-takes-all system in which voters choose the candidates deemed “safest” for party success; consequently, women and minorities, still widely considered politically risky, are often overlooked even if they align ideologically with the electorate.

People in the U.S. also tend to believe that men are more electable than women. According to an Ipsos/Daily Beast poll, 39 percent of Democrats and Independents agree that a woman would have a harder time than a man running against Donald Trump in 2020. 

Campaign Trail Challenges

When women run for office, they often face far more scrutiny than male candidates. Amanda Hunter, Research and Communications Director at the Barbara Lee Foundation, explained how men get away with having less experience and vague policies. Hunter argued that “Women are judged more harshly if it seems like they’re learning on the job,” whereas people are fine with men figuring things out as they go. 

Women are also criticized more harshly for breaking perceived moral standards. Cecelia Mo, Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley, explained that “When women… are shown to be flawed in some way, voters are much less forgiving than they are of their male counterparts.” When women are held to higher standards, their campaigns suffer from political attacks. Consequently, women must fight to prove their likability, electability, and qualifications. To tackle the biases that prevent political parties from taking a chance on women, some countries have implemented proportional representation (PR) systems. The amount of votes each candidate or party gets will determine who the representatives are for each district, depending on the different countries’ electoral rules. 

Amy Klobuchar, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has argued that female candidates are held to a higher standard. (Wikimedia Commons)

PR systems work better for female candidates because rather than ask voters to take a perceived risk by betting everything on a female candidate, the systems allow voters to choose their preferred candidate or party with fewer concerns regarding “electability.”

Systems of proportional representation are used in Rwanda and Sweden, which rank first and fifth in the world respectively for representation of women in the lower house. On the other hand, Canada and the United States, which both use a winner-take-all system of plurality, rank 62nd and 96th respectively. 

Financing also poses an obstacle for female candidates. According to the IPU, female members of parliaments viewed finance issues as bigger deterrents to running for office than their male counterparts did. To counteract this disparity, Ireland introduced a rule in 2012 that withholds funding from political parties without appropriate gender representation. Similarly, Georgia presented an initiative in 2016 that awards political parties more funding if they increase their gender representation. 

In addition to financial barriers, cultural and social barriers hinder the participation of women in politics. The IPU has proposed efforts to make parliament more “women-friendly,” including disallowing parliamentary sessions to take place during evenings (so as not to intrude upon family time), enacting parental leave policies, updating absentee and proxy voting methods, allocating resources towards childcare facilities, and employing gender-appropriate language as necessary. 

Representation Means Results

While the barriers to election are tough, the women that manage to surmount them prove effective in office.

Women tend to focus more on policy than partisanship. Studies show that women prefer to compromise with other officials and build bipartisan relationships. “We [women] want each other to succeed and find a path forward because we really leave the partisan politics at the door,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).  

In India, local councils led by women had 62 percent more drinking water projects than councils led by men. Furthermore, in Norway, a causal relationship emerged between childcare coverage and the presence of women in municipal councils. Electing women has additionally resulted in policies pushing for criminal rehabilitation, focusing on minorities, and emphasizing families and healthcare.

Moreover,  female representation in government often results in the advancement of women’s interests. Women’s rights activist Mehrezia Maïza Labidi spearheaded the adoption of a Tunisian constitution that guaranteed women’s rights in 2014. 

Louise Mushikiwabo served as Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Ministry of Environment - Rwanda)

Furthermore, the effect of electing a woman ripples outward as more women and girls see powerful officials as female role models. Taking inspiration from female leaders as a child, Coumba Diaw began working to teach other women about hygiene, reproductive rights, and generating income. She then became the only female mayor in the Louga region of Senegal. As a public figure, she wants to empower other women to see the value of their participation in public affairs. Despite challenges, activists and officials like Diaw continue to fight against systemic prejudice to increase female representation in governments around the world.