With the freshly-minted ASWSU elections, it is necessary to examine female representation in politics on a local, national and international level. According to the ASWSU Web site, our student government is consistently one of the strongest in the nation. However, only about 14 percent of the past 196 presidential and vice-presidential leaders of WSU have been female. The amount of women presidents and vice-presidents in ASWSU reflects the female representation of U.S. Congress where 15 percent of the legislators are women, 13 of the 100 representatives. Equal rights are in the best interest of everyone involved. In order to ensure human rights for everyone, there needs to be an equal amount of all interests represented. Having equal representation is beneficial in addressing different issues in policymaking. According to a publication from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the amount of women in legislature directly relates to more social policies like welfare and employment and unemployment benefits. In developing countries like Rwanda and Afghanistan, women have had an integral role in the formation of peaceful policies during reconstruction. Some countries in Africa and South America have begun to impose quotas in order to obtain more women in politics. There are several campaigns that are working on getting more female political leaders in comparison with males. These are all worthy causes that can spark some change but necessary alterations must be in the mindset of our country in regards to gender, race and religious equality.

Our America democracy claims to equally represent every citizen’s interests through the representative system. But how can everyone’s diverse interests be represented if there is not an equal representation of the population of women and minorities?

Women make up half of the U.S. population but are far from holding half of the seats in Congress. This is besides the fact there never has been a female president or vice-president in our nation. The United States is below the global average of women in government, which stands at 9 percent.

How come the only thing our Congress represents is a world of male white corporate oppression?

According to data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, The United States ranks 68 in the amount of women that hold public office as of 2006. The United States does have higher female representation compared to some other developed countries like Ireland, Italy, France and Japan, this is still nothing to boast about.

I doubt that women do not want to be involved and have a voice in their societies, that’s the whole reason for the very movement for women’s suffrage. But it is intriguing that in governments such as Liechtenstein, which did not allow women to vote until 1986, have a higher percentage of women in their legislative bodies. This suggests that struggle for equality, first with policy and then with action, has become stagnant in the United States as reflected by the low numbers of women in the political realm. Yes, it is true that American women enjoy many rights in comparison to other countries but there is still that glass ceiling, the invisible veil of inequality that keeps women out of important sectors of society.