A recent survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions among students taking the Law School Admissions Test revealed interesting statistics about the number of law school students interested in pursuing political careers.
Glen Stohr is the Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions Pre-Law assistant director. "According to the numbers, 42 percent of respondents said they would be interested in pursuing a political career. Among those students, a breakdown by gender showed a noticeable gap - 52 percent of male students versus a drop to 34 percent among female students," Stohr told reporters.
New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof said, "Scholars find that women, compared with men, tend to excel in consensus-building and certain other skills useful in leadership."
Kristof argues that gender does deserve discussion. He attributes the lack of substantial femininity in politics to an overarching, if unconscious, discrimination against women. "In democracies in the television age, female leaders have to navigate public prejudices - and these make democratic politics far more challenging for a woman than for a man," Kristof said.
UGBC President Jenniffer Castillo, A&S '08, would be anomalous in the context of this study, but she nonetheless agrees with Kristof's statement. Castillo said, "Our own society, and the fact that women at a time were supposed to be at home with their families, women feel they have to fulfill this gender role. And even though it has changed it's still rooted in that culture that we have and that's why we have a lack of women in politics."
Kay L. Schlozman, J.Joseph Moakley professor of political science, said that gender roles still exist in politics. "We know that among married candidates in general, men decide to run for office and pretty much don't need permission from their wives, but that the opposite isn't true: wives need permission from their husbands."
Schlozman considered how the public and the media might treat female politicians differently. "We had two presidential candidates with wives with serious illnesses, Mitt Romney, whose wife has multiple sclerosis, and John Edwards, whose wife has cancer, and they both decided to go ahead. It's interesting to consider whether the public or the media or other politicos would have treated it the same way if the shoe were on the other foot, if it was a female candidate who had a husband with a serious illness? I don't know; I do think that the media and the elites in the parties treat women aspirants differently," Schlozman said.
"Witness the public debate about Mrs. Clinton's allegedly 'thick ankles,' or the headlines last year about cleavage," Kristof said.
Last month, this scrutiny reached a fever pitch when Clinton allegedly cried before a group of women before the New Hampshire primaries. People began to wonder aloud whether her emotion would get in the way of her resolve and strength, or even whether she was crying to garner sympathy from the female demographic.
Edwards, speaking to reporters, said, "I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are a tough business, but being president of the United States is also a very tough business."
In the American democracy, it seems that these natural differences between the sexes have become gender roles that have the power to confine women, and perhaps even prevent them from becoming politically active.
"If you look at the married couples that you know, usually the man is taller, even though there are plenty of men who are shorter than plenty of women. So what you find is that there is nature and there is nurture and things sort out in ways that have cultural resonances," Schlozman said.
Castillo said that Clinton's election would be an inspiration for young women to become more involved in politics. "I hope that if she were to get elected it would create some sort of change and people would start seeing women as equal to men. If she won it would be so empowering to young women everywhere," Castillo said.
Schlozman echoes this sentiment by backing it up with facts from her own book on the subject: The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. "We found that in jurisdictions where women were exposed to visible women contesting for and holding public offices, things like governors, senators, and members of Congress, that it meant that women were more interested in politics and it closed the gender gap in political participation. It's politicizing to them to be exposed to women running for office," said Schlozman.
Be the first to comment on this article!