America’s Got Its First Woman Vice President, But Where Do Women Stand In Politics?
Less than a week ago, the United States said goodbye to the Trump-Pence administration and welcomed President Biden and Vice President Harris to Washington. Millions watched live as they were both sworn in at a very different kind of inauguration ceremony – in the midst of a pandemic and on the same land that was stormed by insurrectionist Trumpists only a fortnight before.
The carnage left in the wake of the Trump era will be no easy clean-up, but it’s important to recognise that whilst this new dawn at the White House is a breath of fresh, necessary air, we mustn’t overlook the fact that the inauguration was historic for women and minorities in politics. Kamala Harris’ swearing in marked not only the first woman ever to become Vice President of the United States, but the first Black, and the first Asian-American person to take on the role, too.
Sat watching the inauguration on TV here in the UK, I excited texted my friends as we collectively watched history being made. Even as a Brit, I felt a level of pride for Kamala Harris that I can’t quite explain. It got me thinking about women in politics, and how progress is looking beyond a woman Vice President.
A few days before Kamala Harris took to the Capitol steps to take her oath, UN Women released data focused on women’s leadership and political participation, and it shows that achieving gender parity within politics is a long way off.
Only 21 countries currently have women serving as a Head of State or Government, whilst 119 countries still have never had a woman leader. Based on that alone, gender parity within these positions of power won’t happen until 2150. Only 14 countries have achieved at least 50% or more women in cabinets, and based on the annual increase of these figures and the fact that only 21% of government ministers are women, ministerial positions won’t see gender parity for at least another 56 years.
Even in lower levels of government, there are still 27 States globally in which less than 10% of parlimentarians are women – that includes four with absolutely no women at all. So who has reached gender parity within these levels? As it stands, just four countries: Rwanda, Cuba, Bolivia, and the United Arab Emirates.
When Trump came into power back in 2016, record-breaking numbers of women were running for local and higher government positions, a generally collective effort to keep a misogynist president from setting women’s rights efforts back by half a century.
Despite the fact that the world’s national governments are significantly lacking women within positions of political decision-making, there’s evidence that indicates that women’s leadership actually improves these political processes – and that group of evidence is continuously growing. Their input has been shown to help projects from gender equality to electoral reform, with particular research in India showing that women-led councils focused on a higher number of drinking water projects than that of men-led councils.
Kamala Harris becoming Vice President of one of the most powerful countries on earth is undoubtedly a glass ceiling shattered. But with the world’s governments still remaining majority men-led, there seems to be a skyscraper of glass ceilings still waiting to be shattered. I’m hopeful that the feeling I felt on the day of the inauguration resonates with many, and that it encourages women across generations to strive to do incredible things in politics. In the quest for political gender parity, let’s ‘be more Kamala’.
Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images
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