Staggering Numbers of Female
Representation and Why Sweden is Leaps and Bounds Ahead of the U.S
By Lexi Crandall 22 November 2016
New light continues to be shed on the unequal
and, quite frankly, astonishing male to female ratio in political offices of
the United States. Although women make up 50.4% of the U.S population (World
Bank 2015), they only hold
19.4% of political seats in the government (Inter-Parliamentary Union 1 Nov
2016). Let’s take a moment to put this statistic into perspective. African
countries like Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, Senegal, Rwanda all report that
women make up at least 30% of their government representatives, with Rwanda
having the largest percent of female representation in the world, 63.8%. Israel,
Iraq, Afghanistan also report larger representation equality between genders
than the United States. ((Inter-Parliamentary Union 1 Nov 2016). This is to say
nothing of fellow world superpowers like China, France, Germany, United
Kingdom, that each have larger numbers of female representation than the United
States.
Female
representation in politics is an important demographic in any country, especially
when half of the population is comprised of women, as is the case in the United
States. Citizen interests are different from one gender to another and diverse
representatives are elected to represent the diverse interests of all citizens.
Women in political office will look out for policies, legislation, and causes
that are quintessential to the quality of life of American women. Therefore,
equal representation should be a top priority. However, the statistics we see
above leave us to wonder, how is it possible that the United States lags so
incredibly far behind?
The
answer lies in the analysis of the extensive path to political office. This
path is broken down into categories and is often referred to as “The Pipeline
to Political Office”. In the United States, the percent of men and women
citizens starts at approximately 50/50. As individuals move from the “eligible”
category to “recruits” and “candidates”, and then eventually to the category of
elected representatives, the number of females progressively dwindles to a
staggering 80/20 male to female ratio. While there are many factors along the
pipeline that contribute to this dwindling ratio, eligibility, being the first
step, demands special attention.
One basic qualification of political
office is degree in higher education. If less women graduate from college,
there will inevitably be less women elected to office because their lack of a
higher education renders them ineligible to run. As we look into the higher
education and political representation statistics in Sweden, we find a possible
correlation between higher
education reform and a more equal representation.
Sweden experienced extreme higher education reform when they passed the Higher
Education Act of 1977. This act, among other things, unified higher education
in the hopes that they would create equality in education and give all people,
from a diversity of social backgrounds, equal access to a college education.
The passage of the Higher Education Act resulted in a giant leap in female graduate
rates. In the mid-1960’s, 35% of Swedish graduates were female, compared to 60%
just three decades later, in the 1990’s (Statistical Yearbook of Sweden
1945-1981). The rates of women enrolled in Swedish-equivalent college courses
also jumped ahead of men after 1977 and has continued to rise, soaring higher
and higher above male enrollment rates (Higher Education in Sweden 2013 Status
Report). Looking today at Sweden’s demographics for female political
representation, we see they are the fifth highest in the world with women
comprising an impressive 43.6% of government representation (Inter-Parliamentary
Union 1 Nov 2016).
Looking
at the percentages of college graduates in the United States from 1940 to the
1990’s, we see a gaping disparity between male and female graduates from the
1960’s to about 1990 when women finally began to close the gap and ultimately
jump ahead of male graduate rates in the early 2000’s.
Comparing the U.S to Sweden, we see that
Sweden passed reform to secure and encourage higher education for all citizens
regardless of gender or other demographics in 1977 which was followed by an
immediate increase in female college students and graduates, while the U.S
finally closed the gap in the late 1990’s. Practically speaking, women who were
first impacted by the education reform in
Sweden, most likely graduated in the late
80’s and these college graduates would now be at the age and experience level
that they have been elected to political seats in Sweden. If higher education
trends in Sweden continue, and no other changes occur that influence representation,
we can assume that representation in Sweden will continue to equalize and even
more women will be elected to office. Since the United States is about 20 years
behind Sweden in bridging the gender gap in higher education rates, and has
significantly lower female representation rates, we could argue that education
rates have some effect on the demographics of elected representation.
Public figures have recently encouraged a greater
emphasis on higher education for women. Michelle Obama, among others, has been
a powerful force in encouraging education for girls throughout the world, but
especially here in the United States. She also started the Reach Higher
Initiative which encourages students to complete a four-year university degree
post-high school graduation. Her initiative supports President Obama’s “North
Star” goal to make America the country with the world’s highest proportion of
college graduates by the year 2020 (The Edvocate 2016).
If
higher education for American women becomes the “norm” as opposed to an
unnecessary, or dispensable achievement, I am convinced that it will increase numbers
of female representation in U.S politics, like we’ve seen in Sweden. In
addition, the quality of our homes will increase as these mothers raise the
next generation. No longer should a woman’s education be more flexible than a
man’s. Education should not be emphasized for one person over another,
especially when it comes to gender. As we increase the completion of higher
education, rigid gender stereotypes, especially in regards to political
representation, will start breaking at the seams.
