Women in Politics

I watched a video called Women, Power and Politics. Watching this video, I learned that the United States ranks 69th in the world in percentage of women holding political power and that most developed countries are ahead of us. Only 16% of our congress is made up of women and we only have 8 female governors. As we grow as a nation, more women are gaining political power, but it seems like it is happening at a very slow rate. If over 50% of this country’s population are women, then why not more women in power? Rwanda has a greater percentage of females elected to the lower house of parliament than in any other nation in the world. They believe that women are better at maintaining peace and are less likely to be involved in corruption over men. In 2006 Chile elected their first female president, Michelle Bachelet Jeria. Chile went from a democracy to a dictatorship then back to a democracy and now has a female president. During Jeria’s term, she plans on working to get equal pay for women. I would like to see our country work on issues that will benefit or change how women are viewed on our society, but we are too concerned with what rights women should or should not have when it comes to their own bodies. Chile doesn’t seem to mind that their president has been divorced, is a single mother who had a child out of wedlock or has no religious values. These are things that our society will judge instead of seeing the abilities that the person is capable of. Michelle Bachelet Jeria has been ranked the 25th in the list of 100 most powerful women even though her personal life is less than perfect. I think we should be able to set personal things aside and focus on the ability of ones work whether it is from a man or woman.