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Gender & Politics. Politics. A social process through which people and groups acquire, exercise, maintain, or lose power over others. ( Hickley , 1999). Power. Is the ability of one person or group to exercise influence and control over others. (Anderson & Taylor, 2004).
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Politics • A social process through which people and groups acquire, exercise, maintain, or lose power over others. (Hickley, 1999)
Power • Is the ability of one person or group to exercise influence and control over others. (Anderson & Taylor, 2004)
Analysis of Power • Sociologists ask and answer the following questions: How is it structured in society—who has it, how is it used, and how is it built into institutions such as the state? (Anderson & Taylor, 2004)
Macropolitics • The exercise of large-scale power, the government being the most common example (Henslin, 2004)
Micropolitics • The exercise of power in everyday life Example: deciding who is going to do the housework (Henslin, 2004)
“Women’s Power in Global Perspective” (Map from Macionis, 2005)
International Politics • Although women are half the Earths population, they hold 18.4% seats of the world’s 180 parliaments. (http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm Feb 28 2009)
Women in Parliament—Worldwide http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm--March 2009
Greatest Gender Equality • Percentage of Seats in Parliament • Rwanda—56.3% • Sweden -- 47% • Cuba -- 43.2% • Finland -- 41.5% • Netherlands -- 41.3% • United States—17% • http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm--March 2009 (Inter-parliamentary Union, 2005)
Women in National Parliament (http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm March 2009)
Canada Argentina Bolivia Nicaragua Panama Philippines Israel Poland Ireland Norway Burundi Rwanda India Pakistan Sri Lanka Haiti Turkey Bangladesh Great Britain Yugoslavia Portugal Central African Republic Jamaica What do all these nations have in common?
Answer: All have had a woman president or prime minister.
Current Women Political Leaders • President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner –Argentina • Queen Margrethe II -- Denmark • President TarjaHalonen—Finland • Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir –Iceland • President Mary McAleese –Ireland • Queen Beatrix -- Netherlands • President VairaVike-Freiberga –Latvia • President Marie-NoëlleThémereau – New Caldonea • Governor-General Dame PearletteLouisy –St. Lucia • Prime Minister Helen Clark – New Zealand • President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – Phillipines • Prime Minister Maria do Carmo Silveira— São Tomé and Príncipe (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0801534.html--retrieved March 2009)
Future • The United Nations suggests at current rates it will be 500 years before women have equivalent power to men in global politics.
U.S.-International Comparison • Overall, the U.S. in 2009 ranked 71stamong 188 nations in the proportion of women serving as national legislators. (Interparliamentary Union, 2009)
111th U.S. Congress • 90 Women in U.S. Congress • 17 Women in the U.S. Senate—17% (of 100) • 73 Women in the House of Reps -- 16.8% of seats (of 435) CAWP March 2009
Speaker of the House • Congresswoman Nanci Pelosi • Second in presidential line of succession • First woman in history to hold this post CAWP March 2009
Women in the US Senate 2009 • 17 women (13D, 4R) serve in the US Senate in the 111th Congress. • To date, a total of 31 women have served in the Senate. (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts/Officeholders/cawpfs.html)
Women in Cabinet Positions in the Obama Administration Hillary Rodham ClintonSecretary of State Melody C. BarnesDirector of the Domestic Policy Council Janet NapolitanoSecretary of Homeland Security Hilda L. SolisSecretary of Labor
Women Governors women in U.S. history have served as governor • 8 women currently serve as governors: • AlaskaGov. Sarah Palin • ArizonaGov. Jan Brewer • North CarolinaGov. Bev Perdue • ConnecticutGov. M. Jodi Rell • HawaiiGov. Linda Lingle • KansasGov. Kathleen Sebelius • MichiganGov. Jennifer M. Granholm • WashingtonGov. Chris Gregoire (http://www.nga.org) March 2009
Women in State Legislature (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts/Officeholders/cawpfs.html)
Would America be in better hands if morewomen were in political office?
What are some examples of Macrolevel political power impacting the lives of women, men, boys and girls?
Housework • Women average 16.5 hours a week of housework compared to 9.2 hours for men. This pattern holds whether people are employed or not, married or not, and parenting or not. (Stapinski, 1998 cited in Macionis 2005)
Housework • The closer a husband’s and wife’s earnings, the more likely they are to share housework. -- Although husbands in such marriages don’t share housework equally, they share more than other husbands. (Henslin, 2004) • Unemployed husbands do the least housework. Why?
The Second Shift • Refers to the housework women do after their paid job (Hochschild, 1998). • Wives who put in a 8-hour day of working for wages average 11 hours more childcare and housework each week than their husbands. (Bianchi and Spain, 1996 cited in Henslin, 2004) • Wives are 8 times more likely than husbands to feel the division of labor is unfair. (Sanchez, 1994 cited in Henslin, 2004)
Husbands Strategies of Resistance Hochschild interviewed 50 families and did participant research with 12 and found that the majority of husbands used the following strategies of resistance to housework: • Waiting it out: Don’t volunteer for housework. When wife asks, show irritation or become glum. This discourages wife from asking again. • Playing Dumb: When doing housework, become incompetent. • Needs Reduction: Ex. Wrinkled clothes, cereal, ok. • Substitute Offerings: Express appreciation to the wife for being so organized—subtle encouragement for her to keep working the second shift.
What are other examples of microlevel power related to gender?
