I studied politics with my good friend Eric Wetlaufer during our days studying in Wesson, Mississippi and ever since we have always had great debates and frank discussions with each other, about the face of politics. Something which we were discussing last week via email was the rise of women in politics, a welcome change to the political landscape. This is a topic close to Eric’s heart as his mum tried to get into politics in the 60s, but was declined membership. Thankfully those days are gone, and here is why Eric thinks that the landscape has changed.
Social Attitudes
The days of people thinking that women should be at home whilst the man goes out to work are most definitely gone, at least for the most part, and this has meant that women can go out and have a career that they want. In terms of politics this has been one of the slowest in terms of the amount of women getting involved but as Eric reminds me, it is improving every year.
Role Models
Young girls growing up now have a huge amount of positive female role models that they can look to and try to follow in their footsteps. Throughout al industries of business, sports, entertainment and politics, there are many powerful females who are doing the job just as well, if not better, than the boys. More women than ever own their own company and more women than ever are in politics, some of whom are leaders of nations, Eric says that all of this is what inspires the young girls to believe that they too can be whatever they want.
Speaking Up
Something which Eric describes as something which for many years that he never understood, was why so few women were in politics, when they represent such a significant part of society. Women in politics represent us all, but they also very much represent the ladies in society and over the years these female politicians have made huge strides in the attitudes towards females. If we lived in a society which had 90% males and 10% females then it perhaps could be understood, but with such an even amount of both, Eric think that it is high time that the paradigm shifted, and that we have many more women in power.
Arrogance
Eric believes that for many years too many men showed arrogance in their treatment of women and believed that they were somehow better than them. We all know this not to be true but after so many years of fidelity issues, stereotypes, poor treatment and ultimately a lack of respect, it makes sense that eventually women would say enough is enough, and stand up to change the social attitude towards them. As Eric notes, it is sad that things worked out this way, but brilliant that we are now moving towards a political landscape which represents us all.