When most people think of politicians they see an average size male with white hair and a business suit. The first image that pops into children's heads won't be a woman, and that has to be discouraging to young girls.
This doesn't have to be a discouraging fact if anything it can be one of the most encouraging things to see something that needs to be corrected.
The 19th amendment was ratified to the constitution on August 18th, 1920. This amendment granted women the right to vote and is known as women's suffrage. Our country has come a long way since the time when wealthy landowning males were the only people in our country with the rights we take for granted today. Women may have the right to vote, but our fight is far from over. Humans, by nature, want to fix problems, and before a problem can be fixed all the information needs to be known.
"Taxation without representation".
This phrase might be ringing a bell to you because your United States history teacher yelled it multiple times at the class while learning about the American Revolution. This phrase was coined in the fury of British parliament imposing multiple taxes on the colonists. Colonists thought these taxes to be illegal because they had no representation in Parliament.
While this isn't the exact same thing it's extremely similar. Congress is making and passing laws that concern us women without that many women having a say.
Our congress is composed of 535 members, 100 from the Senate, and 435 in the House of Representatives. Out of those 535 members, 21 percent of the Senate is female and 19.3 percent of the House of Representative.
While this may not seem like such a horrible number, it is if we look at the population of the United States. During the 2010 census, women accounted for 50.8 percent of the population, yet there are only 105 women in Congress.
Why are all these numbers so important?
I'm inspired every day by the events after and before the Revolutionary War. So much so that this Halloween I'm going dressed as a colonial solider! Way back during the late 1700s, the colonials were fighting for a nation which would become something so large, so revolutionary, that they likely couldn't even fathom a nation like ours. Yet here we are.
There is no denying our nation has come a long way since 1776, and yet there is no denying we have a long way to go. "Taxation without representation", a phrase so simple yet so prevalent in this day in time. We forget what our founding fathers wanted, and we need to continue to live the 'Revolutionary Dream', as stated by the Declaration of Independence, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
These numbers are important because they push us closer in pursuit of that dream. 105 members in Congress is better than no representation in Congress. Yet we should work to have more because to me that's what being an American is all about, not stopping until we achieve what we desire most.
Pushing towards the dream
Surely anyone who's had a bad haircut knows change doesn't happen overnight. Change takes time, hard work, and perseverance. We need more women in Congress because there are more women than men, and that's a fact!
People become inspired when something is worth fighting for, and so that's what we do. We push forward, we make sure more females know that they can do it as well. It's a challenge, and who doesn't love a good challenge?
Booker T. Washington once said, "Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work."
