Women in Politics (8/3/2004)

In no country in the world are women equally represented in the government. According to Joni Seager's The State of Women in the World, in only ten countries are women 25 percent or more of elected government officials, and in some countries women have no share of formal political power. Women face enormous obstacles in achieving political parity with men. For example, Afghan women are being threatened, bombed, ambushed and killed as they try to register and vote. During her registration drive for women voters, Afghan election worker Fauzia Mohammadi, a mother of six , said , "They attacked us, and some of us died, and some of us were injured. But we will go back. My in-laws told me not to go outside and work. I told them today is the time I have to go outside and serve my country. Men and women are equal." In Sub-Saharan Africa, women face a rapidly rising AIDS epidemic because their countries' laws restrict their ability to control their lives and sexual relationships.

In our own country, women still lack political parity. While the fate of the American colonies was being debated, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, Congressman John Adams, that freedom from tyranny should extend to women as well as men and urged him to "remember the ladies." But, when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1789, it did not "remember the ladies." The road to suffrage was harsh; women were ridiculed, threatened, attacked, arrested and even force fed while imprisoned. It wasn't until 1920 that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified finally and gave women only the right to vote.

Today, more than 7 million more women are registered voters than men. Yet, we still lack equal protection under the U.S. Constitution, and men overwhelmingly hold the seats of power. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, in 2004, women hold only 74, or 13.6%, of the 535 seats in the U.S. Congress-only 14 in the Senate and 60 in the House. Only 80 women hold statewide elective executive offices across the country-that is 25.4% of 315 available positions. Only 1,661, or 22.5% of the 7,382 state legislators in the United States, are women. Like women's suffrage, women's quest to be equally represented in our government is difficult. Lucy Stone said at the 1852 Women's Rights Convention, "The woman who first departs from the routine in which society allows her to move must suffer. Let us bravely bear ridicule and persecution for the sake of the good that will result, and when the world sees that we can accomplish what we undertake, it will acknowledge our right."

The National Women's Political Caucus was founded in 1972 to increase women's participation in all phases of the political process; the Caucus is a multi-partisan, multicultural, intergenerational, and multi-issue grassroots organization. In a little bit of local history, the Illinois Women's Political Caucus held its first statewide convention in 1975 in my hometown Macomb, Illinois, in McDonough County, to encourage, recruit and support Democratic and Republican women in political races. In fact, since that time, more local women have entered the political arena and are holding public office.

Yet, until now, no woman has ever sought the important McDonough County office of state's attorney. A plucky and highly qualified woman, Anne Burton, is now a candidate for that office. Burton is an attorney with extensive background in civil litigation and a passion for justice. She is optimistic about her chances, and is focused on the issues. Whatever the election-day outcome, Anne Burton has opened another political door for women.

Our presence in government is critical to ensuring our rights. We are important to the very essence of governance because government impacts every facet of our lives. Unless we achieve political seats of power, we will continue to be the poorest of the poor and endure the special burdens of mass rapes, sexual exploitation, and erosion of our rights while sustaining families with limited economic means and civic infrastructure. Whether helping register women to vote in Afghanistan or running for political office in the U.S., each step a woman takes-really matters.

- Judith Kohler

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