51% of Pennsylvania’s population is made up of women. There are 18 House districts in the state, but women don’t represent one of them. Out of the 35 candidates running for Congress, only five are female. Never once has Pennsylvania elected more than one woman to serve in Congress at a time. Even more upsetting is that Pennsylvania isn’t the only state with no female representatives; there are 17 more. Three of those 17 populations combined don’t match the population of just Philadelphia.
Whoever still believes that women are treated equal to men, you’re wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, we have made huge strides as a society in feminist terms. Take a trip down memory lane with me, and I’ll show you. In 1769, women were finally able to own property…if they were married. In 1872, Victoria Chaflin Woodhull was the first woman ever nominated for president. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed so women would make the same amount of money as men for doing the same job. In 1973, the Supreme Court establishes women’s right to an abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision. In January of 2016, women gained the right to serve in any job in the armed services. In November of 2016, we may just have our first female president and first female U.S. senator.
Jean Harris, a politics professor at the University of Scranton, told Philly.com, “There is still the assumption by both men and women that politics is a better place for men. Right now, everybody in Congress from Pennsylvania is a white man. They’re going to encourage, and they socialize with, other white men.” Philly.com mentions that the five women that were tenacious enough to put their names on the ballot have been facing menacing obstacles: little funding, big money, and districts with rigid political ideologies. However, history shows that the women probably will not win.
This country needs a representative government now more than ever. With new issues arising about the wage gap, abortion rights, and sexual assault crises, we need the determination, work ethic, and family-oriented and productive minds that women provide.
Women running against men for a representative spot in Pennsylvania is like the battle of David and Goliath. But you know what? David won. And so can we.