Monday, November 10, 2014
Midterm Elections Show Signs of Progress Towards Gender Equality
Across the country US citizens
voted in last week’s midterm elections and for the first time in history, we
have voted more than 100 women into the House of Representatives. This is just
one of the few landmarks that happened for the nation. Massachusetts is the
site of another landmark: we have elected the first openly gay attorney general
in the country into office. These historical events don’t mean that the US has
moved past issues of gender or sexuality, but that we are finally acknowledging
them and working towards building a more representative government of the
people. The amazing women elected into office last week have certainly earned
their spots, and we are happy to see that efforts for gender equality in
government are paying off.
Electing women into office isn’t
just about making the numbers higher, but about having people who will continue
to work for gender equality once they’re in office. Studies have shown that women in office are
more likely to support bills that address women’s issues and tend to be more
supportive of legislation that will empower other groups in the country. In
addition to that, women in government typically are more willing to work across
the aisle in order to compromise and move legislation forward. For these
reasons among many others, it is important to continue supporting women in
politics and to applaud those who won their elections last Tuesday.
The elections were marked by a
number of landmarks, and these landmarks show how far we’ve come. Electing
women into office is a sign that the country is acknowledging the equality of
the sexes. These elections also indicate that we will continue to have progress
in the future as our female candidates continue their hard work in office. It
is with this in mind that we want to congratulate our MWPC PAC-endorsed
candidates Christine Barber, Deb Goldberg, Maura Healey, Barbara L’Italien,
Karyn Polito, Marian Ryan. In addition, we offer our congratulations to Suzanne
Bump who was re-elected as state auditor. We also want to applaud Martha
Coakley for her hard fought-campaign for Governor and all of the work she has
done for women in her time leading up to it.
-Gia Rowley
