Women in politics Kaylene Lin Excited. Nervous. Terrified. She burst through the door of her high school counselor’s office, desperate to get something off of her chest. She worried about what her parents would think. She worried about what everyone would think. Just a freshman in high school, young Angelica Espinoza grew up surrounded by politics. In her hometown just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, with her two immigrant parents, in her brown skin and Latina heritage - politics wove her life together. So, she confided in her high school counselor. “I’m going to be the first of my family to go to college. I don’t know what to major in; I don’t even know how to apply. I just know that I’m really interested in politics. What do you think?” And without missing a beat, her counselor looked up and said, “I don’t think politics would be good for you. That kind of place just isn’t made for girls like you.”
“Girls like you” Women have had a long history of being told “no.” In the United States, they weren’t given the right to vote until 1920, couldn’t serve jury duty in all 50 states until 1968, and the act prohibiting women from practicing law purely on the grounds of their sex wasn’t outlawed until 1971. Women were legally kept out of every corner of United States’ politics for fear that “becoming educated” caused infertility. And even now, plenty of young girls just like Espinoza are told “no” to chasing their aspirations. “I harbored that moment with me,” Espinoza said. “I never want anyone ever to feel that your dreams are crushed because someone says that you don’t belong there since you’re a woman.” Now several years since that conversation with her counselor, Espinoza works at Ignite as a San Diego Fellow. Launched in 2010 and headquartered in Oakland, Ignite is an organization dedicated to encouraging young women to own their political power. “If you want to run for office, awesome, let’s go ahead and support your campaign and get it started. If you want to be a political staffer and start writing bills, okay, we’re going to teach you the skills to be an advocate within that sector,” Espinoza said. Emily’s List, founded in 1985, is another organization that helps recruit candidates, fund campaigns, and mobilize voters.
“Women were not taken seriously in politics because they couldn’t raise the money to be considered viable candidates. So our founder, Ellen Malcolm, along with a number of her friends, decided if we put money behind women candidates, that would raise their viability,” Tonya Williams, the Director of Strategic Communications at Emily’s List, said. Both Ignite and Emily’s List serve as real-life reminders that women in politics are a new phenomenon. But even if it is new, plenty of similar organizations are set on making politics an accessible reality for girls nationwide. “The fact is men cannot be deciding for the whole population when the whole population isn’t men. We need to have accurate representation. We need to truly make sure that this world works for all of us, and not just some of us,” Espinoza said. Yet, even with these organizations in place, women still face backlash when going into politics. For example, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 provoked a wave of sexism. In an article by The Atlantic in 2016, Peter Beinart recalls the different types of merchandise on display outside of the Republican National Convention. “Black T-shirt depicting Trump as a boxer having just knocked Clinton to the floor of the ring, where she lies face up in a clingy tank top. White pin advertising ‘KFC HILLARY SPECIAL. 2 FAT THIGHS. 2 SMALL BREASTS … LEFTWING,’” Beinart said. While it is debated whether or not sexism was actually a driving force in Clinton’s defeat, the double standards that she faced while running aren’t new. “For example, Congresswoman Katey Porter out in California said that some reporters would ask her so much about how her children were that she actually thought something was wrong with them. Men aren’t asked questions about marriage or childcare nearly as much,” Williams said. Additionally, 67% of Americans say that it is easier for men to get elected into high political offices, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel. Six-in-ten Americans also say that women have to work harder to prove their competency, and about five-in-ten say gender discrimination is a major barrier in politics. These statistics reflect the obstacles women faced less than a century ago. Although they gained the right to vote through the passage of the 19th Amendment, that right was only extended to white women. Black female activists like Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou Hamer were placed in the back of the movement. They had to wait nearly five more decades before exercising their right to vote.
36 HIGHLANDER CAMPUS
