Women and politics

We could argue a lot about where and when democracy started and we would be at loss to name the first ever male to be elected to a political office. However, we can be absolutely certain that the first woman ever elected to a national legislature in any Western democracy was Jeanette Rankin. In 1916, she was elected to the US congress. Everywhere in the world, when democratic revolutions and reforms happened, men were the first to reap the benefits. Women always had to fight very hard to get the same benefits and entitlements. Nowadays however, in all democratic countries, women have the same political rights as men have: they can vote, they can be party members, they can stand for elections.

Yet only less than 20% of world wide elected members of parliaments are female. Only two countries have at least 50% of female MPs: Rwanda and Andorra. As expected, Scandinavian countries top the OECD list with around 40% of female MPs. Germany is at 32%, France is n°36 at 26.9%, the UK is n°57 at 22.3% and the US n°79 at 16.9%.

Why are women so under-represented in politics?
Some 'Mars and Venus' theoricians may think that women are not that into politics and have other interests. However, upon closer inspection, that does not hold up to the facts. Statistics show that if you look at party membership and at grassroot involvement, women are very present at that level. Women are definitely interested in politics and into contributing to the political debate. So, why are they so few at leadership level?

There is a certain 'with the boys' culture with certain sexist codes and stereotypes that may be hard to break into. Some argue that society is not going to change easily and that the law should make it easier for women to be elected through positive discrimination and quota. Others think that those are phoney measures and that merit alone should be considered when selecting candidates. But is merit really the only factor at play?

Networking is very important if you want to have a career, particularly so in politics. It often involves going out. It requires out of business hours time. To have a high flying career in politics as well as in any other area, you need a total commitment, you need to be available nearly 24/7. It is impossible to analyse the gender imbalance in the power sphere without, at the same time, having a look at the gender imbalance in the domestic sphere. There is a persisting inequality at home. Women still do the biggest share of home chores and childcare.

Countries where the equality at home is the greatest are countries where family policies have been introduced. In Sweden for instance, families get more maternity allowance if, after the new birth, they share their maternity/paternity leave equally between the mother and the father. Childcare is also highly subsidised. When Thora Arnorsdottir ran for Iceland presidency in June 2012, her partner was looking after their new born. He was going to become a house husband had she won the election. In the meantime, one of the most powerful and respected political figure of contemporary times is Angela Merkel. And she is... ... child free.