My psychology professor taught our class that every single human being that walks this earth and breeathes oxygen has a set of implicit attitudes (ideaologies or beliefs that are influenced subconsciously) and explicit attitudes (ideaologies or beliefs that we are consciously aware of and verbalize). Everyone has opinions and the world we live in ultimately shapes how those opinions fit in with our values, determining how and when we act on them.
For example: I whole-heartedly believe in gender equality. As a female in the twenty-first century, I pride myself on being just as capable and opportunistic as any male. Unlike my grandmother, I have access to any education, any job, and any career path that I choose. I can pursue my passions and make a place for myself in this world without having to worry about being a stereotypically good housewife in a few years. I’d love to believe that there is 100% gender equality in the world today, or that we’re at least headed in that direction.
But according to the “gender and career” Implicit Attitude Test that my psychology professor asked me to take, I am sexist. The results depicted that I correlated men with career, women with family, men with success, and women with subordinance. This tests measures those attitudes that are subconscious and not necessarily expressed (implicit attitudes, remember?). And while I vehemently disagree with its findings, how can I argue a test that is known to be extremely accurate? I felt cognitive dissonance when my implicit attitudes conveyed by the IAT did not match up with my explicit and feminist attitudes. I questioned which one I actually believed after questioning the accuracy of the test itself. I am female–why would I believe that as a group, females are “subordinate,” and belittle my own potential? But then I did some research.
Women are not as influential in the United States as we percieve them to be. In fact, a very small amount have of women have represented the nation—and it makes sense too. We are yet to even have a female president. America is really still run by a bunch of upperclass men. And there’s quantitative proof:
According to the World Bank, 50.4% of the United States is female (graph not drawn to scale).
And yet, even though we have a slight majority, out of the past 50 governors, 6 have been female (roughly 12% by 2016).
Here’s a taste of the gender ratio in Congress, the country’s most indicative legislative body:
Of the entire world, the countries in pink have world leaders that are female, or governments that are either gender balanced or female dominant. Notice how the United States is still in grey.
Politicians are purportedly supposed to represent the population, or at the very least, the stances and needs of the population. They are elected to fight for and fix issues that voters care about. And thus our political system makes sense: we vote for those who will support us. But more often than not, throughout history as well, politicians are predominatly causcasian and overwhlemingly male.
This is how we end up with a Congress that puts women’s healthcare and a woman’s choice up for a national vote.
However, we should all fully understand that change happens slowly. It is nearly impossible for women to go from being treated as subordinate to fully governing a country as quickly as we would like that to happen. It will be gradual and we are headed in the right direction. But it is up to women as a collective group to know how underrepresented they are and make the necessary leaps to push this change along. because if we don’t do it, who will?