U.S. Women Lag Behind In Govt. Representation

Linda Feldmann of the Christian Science Monitor details the gains American women made in the 2006 elections. She notes the following victories for women:

* For the first time, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will be a woman.
* Congress will have its largest group of women ever -- 16 Senators and at least 71 Representatives.
* Women hold nine governorships, tying the record set in 2004.
* For the first time, the National Governors Association will be chaired by a woman.
* A record number of women [1,735] were elected to state legislatures.

Reading the above statements, you might be given the impression that women are doing really well these days in their quest for government representation. But that would not really be true.

In a country where women are the majority, their representation in Congress is a paltry percentage of the total. That sounds to me like there's still a long way to go.

Dottie Lynch of CBS News agrees saying, "By my count, if the goal of parity is to be achieved at the current 'historic' rate, the number of men and women will be equal in the Senate in 2040 and in the House in 2066. And that's the rosy view; historic years don't happen that often."

In other words, if women continue to make historic gains in every election, they can expect parity in another 60 years. Now I know some of you are saying that even though parity has not yet been achieved, the United States is still doing better than most countries.

Again, that would be wrong. Below are some numbers you need to see. Using data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the world's countries were ranked by the percentage of women in their parliament or legislative body.

1. Rwanda..........48.8%
2. Sweden..........47.3%
3. Costa Rica..........38.6%
4. Finland..........38.0%
5. Norway..........37.9%
6. Denmark..........36.9%
7. Netherlands..........36.7%
8. Cuba..........36.0%
8. Spain..........36.0%
9. Argentina..........35.0%
10. Mozambique..........34.8%
11. Belgium..........34.7%
12. Austria..........33.9%
13. Iceland..........33.3%
14. South Africa..........32.8%
15. New Zealand..........32.2%

Obviously, the United States did not rank in the top 15. Still feeling good about our "progress"? Let's look at some other countries and see just where the U.S. fits in the rankings.

16. Germany..........31.8%
20. Peru..........29.2%
24. Uganda..........27.6%
25. Afghanistan..........27.3%
25. Vietnam..........27.3%
28. Iraq..........25.5%
31. Switzerland..........25.0%
32. Australia..........24.7%
39. Ethiopia..........21.9%
42. Pakistan..........21.3%
42. Portugal..........21.3%
45. Canada..........20.8%
48. China..........20.3%
49. North Korea..........20.1%
51. Dominican Republic..........19.7%
51. United Kingdom..........19.7%
57. Venezuela..........18.0%
59. Italy..........17.3%
67. United States..........15.2%
73. Israel..........14.2%
76. South Korea..........13.4%
77. Ireland..........13.3%
83. France..........12.2%
95. Russia..........9.8%
96. Japan..........9.4%
104. India..........8.3%
134. Saudi Arabia..........0.0%

Even though the U.S. finished with a ranking of 67th, because of the numerous ties, 80 countries actually finished ahead of the United States. Are you as embarrassed as I am? It is unacceptable that women are better represented in 80 other countries, and 15.2% is a pathetic percentage.

These figures are as of September 30 of this year. Due to the November elections, the U.S. percentage has gone up to 16.2 -- still a pathetic figure. Now there are only 74 countries ranked ahead of us. Some will take solace in that several of our allies [Japan, Ireland, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia] had an even worse percentage than we did. But that's just a sad fact -- not an argument in our favor.

Can we really claim to have fair representation when over half our population only has 16% representation in Congress? American women deserve better.