EDITORIAL
The Charleston Gazette-Mail, W.Va.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) This Editorial from the Charleston Gazettette-Mail makes the case for more female leaders in politics.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail, W.Va.
A bright prospect lies in the remarkable number of American women who are marching in cities and leaping into politics.
The upsurge — spurred by GOP threats to women’s rights and favoritism to the privileged — is breaking records.
Applications for Emerge America training for female election candidates jumped 87 percent.
The number of inquiries to the She Should Run advocacy group soared from 1,800 to 15,000.
Women contacting Emily’s List for help as candidates climbed from 920 to 19,000.
Despite gains in employment, education and earnings, women have been underrepresented in elected offices. That means those offices as a whole don’t accurately represent the population.
The more women win public offices, the more America’s policies will support medical care, education, nutrition, escape from poverty, day care and other family-oriented goals, as well as national security, living-wage jobs and prosperity.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. — who took over Hillary Clinton’s seat in the U.S. Senate — told the Michigan Women’s convention:
“We need to change the dynamics in government, and change who has a seat at the table, because our priorities and our solutions are different.”
Columnist Gail Collins praised “the great national explosion of Women’s Marches that followed” the 2016 election. She added:
“It’s 2018, a big election year, and women are going to be running everywhere. We’re sort of astonished by their numbers, but not by their ambition. The important thing is that primary debates will no longer resemble Shriner conventions. Women will be all over the place. Soon, they’ll be half the big decision-makers. It will be normal.”
Collins said Congress will “never be just a guy thing again.”
More women in public life will improve America. The more, the better.
