Female Political Representation Essay

Legislative measures, as well as grassroots movements can also play a role in increasing female political representation. Many legislative measures, although not related to political representation directly, have been put in place to increase the autonomy of women and move closer towards gender equity. These laws focus on three main areas that most influence gender inequality—institutions (i.e. social norms and markets), households and families, and the economy. “Households and families shape gender relations from early in a person’s life,” (King and Mason 99) but households are often influenced by the community around them. If laws and public policy programs target said communities to boost economic growth in the community as a whole, individual …show more content…
Politics can both influence and reveal the gender ideals within a country. The 2016 United States Presidential election revealed many things. For example, it made public the overt sexism in which the United States is rooted. A woman with decades of high-level political experience lost to a man with no political experience whose hate speech and disgusting actions and comments towards women were categorized as “telling it like it is.” The fact that the president-elect is so outspoken in his hatred and misogyny has emboldened many of his followers to do the same, providing evidence for the fact that political figures really can influence the public. The election also revealed the importance of representation and that having such a strong and prominent political figure that is a woman really can inspire young girls and women to be the same. Female representation is important because without it, gender equality will never be reached. Until girls can say that they want to be president when they grow up without people looking at them pityingly, until women who work twice as hard as men in their same position aren’t just considered token members of political groups, true equality will never