Women and Politics

This post was submitted by Rebecca Freedholm, WCF Communications Fellow

I have to admit that I was startled when I first read the title of Katrin Bennhold’s New York Times article, “Feminism of the Future Relies on Men.” Despite the evocation of the future, I braced myself to see the archaic rhetoric of women’s dependency masked in the guise of Palin-inspired “conservative feminism.”

Fortunately, my defense was unnecessary. Instead of the antiquated discourse I had expected, I received a thought-provoking account of the obstacles to gender equality that still exist in the Western world.

The picture that Bennhold paints of women’s stance today is an accurate one in that it is full of confounding contradictions:

“Women earn more doctorates, but less money. They are overtaking men in the work force, but still do most housework. They make the consumer decisions but run only 3 percent of Fortune 500 companies.”

As a stalwart feminist working for women’s advancement in public office, I find myself constantly confronted with the same message: “We have come so far, and yet we have so far to go.”

Why has gender equity proved so difficult to achieve, especially when women excel in so many areas? How is it that we still have such a long way to go?

The answer is perhaps an obvious one.

“In the Western world, motherhood remains the barrier to gender equality. Until they have children, young women now earn nearly the same as men and climb the career ladder at a similar pace. With the babies often come career breaks, part-time work and a rushed two-shift existence that means sacrificing informal networks like the after hours beer-and-bonding experience often crucial at promotion time.”

Unequal division of labor in the household still thwarts women’s advancement in the workforce. Women get pregnant and have to take time off from work. Women go on maternity leave and have to put their careers on the backburner. Women are responsible for the post-work “second shift” of housework and child rearing.

Where are all the men?

When it comes to household division of labor, women have become content with the status quo. Surely feminists have fought valiantly to change the dynamics of the workplace to better accommodate women’s needs—women have negotiated for adequate maternity leave policies, argued for more flexible hours, and opened up avenues for part-time work or work-from-home opportunities in order to balance their roles in the workplace and the home.

As significant as these steps may be, they have not yet yielded sufficient solutions. Women have already proved that they can enter into the “world of men.” What they need to do now, Bennhold postulates, is concentrate on “pulling men into women’s universe.”

“The only thing that can level the playing field at work is a level playing field at home. And that requires a major shift in public policy and corporate culture.”

Gender equality should apply to all realms, in and out of the office. Moreover, gender equality should be important to all people, men and women alike. The solution, it seems, is to inform men of their role in perpetuating gender inequality, to show men how they can benefit from gender equality, and to ultimately engage men in the feminist movement.

As Joanne Dreyfus claims, “Men have a lot to gain from the rise of women.” Men deserve more time in the home with their families, and if the corporate environment were to accommodate men by including paternity leave policies and more flexible work schedules for all employees, both men and women could benefit from a more manageable work-home balance.

Furthermore, employers need to recognize that accommodating all of their employees will aid the advancement of women in the workplace—something companies can be sure to profit from. Research continues to demonstrate that women’s increased involvement in leadership positions positively influences decision-making processes.

I was, therefore, slightly disturbed by Bennhold’s assertion that “guys are the more effective feminists because other guys are more likely to listen to them” (Is feminism yet another realm where men supposedly exceed women?). This claim implies that it’s not important for women to hold leadership positions because men can more effectively push these policies on their own.

Certainly it is vital to convince men already in power of how gender equality will benefit all people. But men alone cannot accomplish the task at hand any more than women alone can. It is crucial to have men and women participating in leadership roles together, constantly in dialog to create policies that help all people reach their fullest potential.

So yes, we must persuade men that gender equality is worth fighting for. But as we enlist men in our cause, we absolutely cannot cease in our endeavor to achieve equal representation in leadership. If we fail to usher more talented women into leadership roles, gender equality will never be realized and our country will suffer the consequences.

By WCF Fellow Trish

A study released today, The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, focuses on a national landmark: for the first time in the history of the United States, half of all paid workers are women.

Yet we’re still only 17% of Congress and 24% of State Legislatures? What gives?

Queen of the Women’s Movement, Gloria Steinem, says the report exposes the truth that though women are better educated than men, it still hasn’t afforded them equal advancement in society.

Steinem explains that the study’s underlying assumption is that government and business will have to adjust policies to meet women’s needs as parents and workers in order to keep the economy going.

But Steinem goes on the pose the question:

“Will this $250,000 poll and estimated $2 million project succeed in creating real change where so many others have failed?”

The report itself headlines such warnings as “Plenty of study, few results: Real family friendly workplace reform is long overdue.”

“Now that women are half of all workers with incomes that are necessary to 80 percent of families—indeed, 40 percent of babies are now born to single mothers—childcare is still nowhere on the list of priorities in Congress, and we have also become the only industrialized country without any requirement of paid family leave.”

As we saw in the sexual assault vote, the unfortunate truth is that it takes women legislators to create change around important issues such as rape and family leave—issues too commonly thought of as “women’s issues,” which really affect our society as a whole.

The only way that we can ensure our nation’s laws and public policy meet the needs of half of our workforce, of half its population, is to get more women in public office.