Feminist & Gender Theory

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— as more quiescent and less effective. They were more likely to be rudely interrupted; they were less likely to strongly advocate their policy preferences; and they seldom mentioned the vulnerable. These gender dynamics held even when adjusting for political ideology (…) and income.

In contrast, the men in our experiment did not speak up less or appear to lose influence when they were in the minority. (Emphasis added) (Mendelberg and Karpowitz 2012)

Clearly, this research shows that women in politics have been forced to adapt the masculine point of view in order to navigate the world of politics; in comparison, however, males do not change their behavior regardless of the gender makeup of their committees or legislatures.

Women didn’t obtain the right to vote in the United States until 1920, far behind other industrialized nations to whom we commonly compare ourselves. The chapter begins by talking about politics, and this is perhaps because the way women are treated, both as voting civilians and as active participants in the political process, still suffers from this myopic dominant worldview. However, with the clear message sent by the electorate in the most recent election, perhaps these dynamics will soon change.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buzzfeed. 2012. “What The 2012 Election Would Have Looked Like Without Universal

Suffrage.” Buzzfeed Politics, November 9. Retrieved November 10, 2012

(http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/what-the-2012-election-would-have-looked-like-with).

Hicks, Josh. 2012. “Fact checking Romney’s ‘binders full of women’ anecdote.” The

Washington Post, October 18. Retrieved November 10, 2012 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/fact-checking-romneys-binders-full-of-women-anecdote/2012/10/18/42f4cd38-18cb-11e2-9855-71f2b202721b_blog.html).

Krauthammer, Charles. 2012. “The way forward.” The Washington Post, November 8. Retrieved

November 10, 2012 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-way-forward/2012/11/08/6592e302-29d8-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html).

Mendelberg, Tali and Christopher F. Karpowitz. 2012. “More Women, but Not Nearly Enough.”

The New York Times, November 8. Retrieved November 10, 2012 (http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/more-women-but-not-nearly-enough/?emc=eta1).

Schultheis, Emily. 2012. “Rape comments bring down Mourdock, Akin.” Politico, November 6.

Retrieved November 10, 2012 (http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/11/rape-comments-bring-down-mourdock-akin-148730.html).