Women's Role In The United States

Within the past 50 years, there has been an increasing amount of women in the government. Whether these women hold powerful positions such as Secretary of State, or hold minor positions such as PTA President, a political revolution is brewing. The United States of America is lacking substantially with regards to females in office, in fact if one were to look statistically at the amount of women in the government, the United States is failing tremendously. Although the United States likes to claim that they are the land of opportunities, it seems as if the only ones reaping those benefits are cis white males. But, there are women who choose to break the glass ceiling and attempt to explore the opportunities that are in front of them, and one

At the inception of the United States, women had portrayed as being in the background of history. It was written that it was men who dictated the direction this country went in, women were just another passenger. This is however a misconception as women have played an integral role in the creation of this nation and its direction. Women have had limited power and say at in the early period of the United States. Over the course of history more women had started to become more outspoken over the inequality.

Over 49.6% of the population is female, and yet in 2015 “Women currently hold 104, or 19.4%, of the 535 seats in the 114th U.S. Congress” (Center for American Women and Politics). Despite this odd split between population and politics, a little

According to the most recent US census in 2015, 50.8% of the population of the United States are in fact, women. Despite the sex ratio essentially being equal, female representation in government is not equal. A correlation is women in the federal bureaucracy and (generally) in federal politics did not occur until the early 1900s. For example, through the determination of Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others strong women, women were brought the right to vote in the United States by the nineteenth amendment (1920). By this initial crack in the gender barrier, women were given the understanding of the importance of women in politics as well as the chance for their voice in politics. The crack has only furthered over time as more women are involved with the bureaucracy.

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

To understand female roles in the US government, we must first look at the first woman to serve on the National stage. Republican Jeanette Rankin, a Montana native, fought for female suffrage in her home state as well as the state of Washington before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1916. Rankin’s election really made a statement on Washington, as women could not legally vote in America, but here was one serving on Congress. Obviously, Congresswoman Rankin went to Washington with a goal, to grant women

Many people doubted women’s abilities to take care of the same issues that men handled. Nonetheless, over time, women have been able to spread awareness about their deserved rights; they have “established strong lobbying groups, won legislative and judicial victories, survived the defeat of the ERA, changed public attitudes about the equality of women, and helped overcome some of the gender imbalance in elective and appointive public office” (Women, 1961-present). Although equal rights have not been fully granted, women accomplished many feats in the past ninety years. Females have gained access to holding public office, with many of them reaching high positions. Women still must work to gain equal rights, but they have come a long way in terms of political

Since their inception in the 19th century, women’s colleges in the United States have faced significant challenges and undergone a multitude of transformations in their pursuit to educate women (Kratzok, 2010; Thelin, 2004; Turpin, 2010). In recent years, economic hardship has forced many women’s colleges to reexamine their identity and initial purpose, as rising costs and dwindling enrollments have led a majority to co-educate or close their doors entirely (Hursh & Wall, 2011; Kratzok, 2010). The fierce competition for students in today’s higher education climate has hit women’s institutions particularly hard, as once there were over three hundred women’s colleges and only about seventy presently remain (Women’s College Coalition, 2001). Though women make up the majority of undergraduate students (Turpin, 2010), the future of these small, private women’s colleges seems uncertain (Langdon & Giovengo, 2003). However, by examining their contentious historical beginnings to their evolution in the 21st century, one can determine the pivotal role women’s colleges still play in the United States higher education system.

Throughout time women have been looked upon as lesser individuals. However this is not the case. Women have played a very important part in our lives since the beginning of time. In the United States just within the past one hundred years women have received the right to vote. Hate and acts of violence against women still happen in other country 's today. This famous quote by Abraham Lincoln proves that women should be treated as equals to men:

In her essay, “Housewives and Homework: The Lacemakers of Narsapur,” Chandra Talpade Mohanty focused on how men sold products that women produced and profited from women’s work. The essay basically pointed out how work can be defined according to sexual identity. It made me wonder if American women are still perceived by men in society as being housewives even though some of us are doctors, lawyers, teachers etc. Is the work that women do seen as what Mohanty pointed out in her essay as “leisure time activities”? I think that to some extent men believe that women’s sole purpose on Earth is to be their wives/partners and to be good mothers to their children. Even though we “leisurely,” as Mohanty so

The first half of the 19th century characterized evolvement of women’s roles within the society areas touching on occupational, moral as well as social reform. Various efforts resulting from factory movements, reforms on social issues as together with women rights movements led to realization of women aims and realization of foundations (Kessler-Harris 67). The changes of roles of women within the American society serves as a major representation of change in contemporary culture as the traditional perceptions perceived women as only limited to household roles. The change presents a significant value to women across different societies throughout the world as it served as a reference point for the changes

It is difficult to define a normative need for women’s representation and participation in politics and policy-making as there are few defined standards globally, nationally, and statewide. Existing

2) Feminism brought this issue to light. As a result, more and more countries are using various methods to slowly increase the percentage of women. One of the more popular methods is to use a quota. A "quota" is a mandatory or voluntary number or percentage of women needed to be placed or hired. (www.lop.parl.gc.ca) Since the adoption of constitutional quotas, the country of Rwanda has been first in female representation since 2003. Women make up about 48.8% to 63.8% of the representation in their governments lower house. (www.lop.parl.gc.ca) Because of the large amount of representation in office, women have more of their issues brought forward and dealt with. For example, in Latin America, the use of quotas has led to improvements on divorce, domestic violence legislation, and child care. (Smith, 2005)

Women are underrepresented in political offices at the national and local levels. Currently, only 17 women serve in the United States Senate out of 100 seats and only 16 percent of the United States House of Representatives are female. Why is this a problem? Legislatures, the House of

Colonialism is and has been a reality during previous centuries. As a political and economical reality it entailed significant consequences in the colonized country's politics, geographical maps, and people's lives, fates and temperaments. As the consequences are hard to ignore the writers of the formerly colonized countries never forgot to write about it and their people's lives before, during and after their country's colonization. As Emecheta is one of these writer who is born and brought up in Nigeria, a colony of British Empire until 1960, postcolonial approach is one of the most appropriate critical methods to deal with her narratives. Besides, since she is focusing on women in the colonial and postcolonial setting trying to