While sentiments regarding gender equity may be changing and liberalizing in certain groups, national recognition of gender issues is reflected in the gender representation in the national government, particularly the legislative body. In the United States, only 19.4% of 535 congressional seats are filled by women, shedding light on the ridiculous gender imbalance and sexism that is still rampant in the US. Furthermore, the US has yet to elect a transgender or genderqueer representative to Congress, demonstrating America’s transphobia and adherence to the gender binary.
Disappointingly, the US’s percentage of female representatives is actually lower than the world’s average, 22.8%. I find this statistic somewhat surprising since the United States is often globally thought of as a center of liberation and justice. In fact, Rwanda proudly has the highest percentage of female representation in parliaments worldwide, having 63.8 percent of their seats occupied by women. This notion many Americans often have, of American equality versus the developing countries’ oppression of women, is an incredibly incorrect concept. Countries around the world have elected women as heads of state and into high ranking government positions, many of them countries Americans consider underdeveloped. Bangladesh, Chile, Liberia, India, etc., have all experienced time under female leadership. 70 countries worldwide have, for at least some time, have had a female head of state: 8 of these in Africa, and a considerable number in South American and East and South East Asian countries. While these numbers are not remotely perfect, they do speak to a certain degree of prejudice that is lasting and adamant in the United States that other, even more stereotypically oppressive countries, have overcome. As more and more countries shatter this glass ceiling, it will be interesting to witness how the United States handles its own gender discrimination, specifically in regards to people across the gender spectrum and their representation in government. After all, if the purpose of the legislative body is to represent the people in government, then the people that compose it should demographically reflect its constituents.
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