Representation In American Politics

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The passing of a revolution in favour of women’s suffrage at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 marked the start of a long, difficult battle for American women to gain the right to vote. Though that battle was won when the nineteenth amendment was passed in 1920, in the century that has followed, a related inequality has persisted. Despite undeniable progress being made, when looking at the field of career politics, women are vastly underrepresented in elected offices across the country. First, examining the statistics surrounding women’s political attainment in the United States presents a gendered arrangement where representation gets lower as prestige and power increase. Next, looking at the emergence of this gendered arrangement in American …show more content…

It is common knowledge that there has yet to be a female President of the United States, but what about congress, or the status of women in state representation? According to The Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United States ranks 100th in the world for female representation in national parliaments as of March 1st, 2017 – behind many countries, from Sweden to Rwanda (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2017). Though these rankings do not represent the state of female wellbeing and other achievements in these countries, they do expose how underrepresented women are in American politics, despite being a wealthy, developed …show more content…

In the case of women in politics, a similar trend is reflected in how many American cities are electing female mayors, but this level of representation does translate to state and federal levels (Catalyst ,2017b). In fact, in her first speech as Speaker of the House, upon becoming the highest-ranking female official in American history, Nancy Pelosi referred to the existence of a marble ceiling for women in politics (Pelosi,

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