Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Are women "meant" to be politicians?  

2 comments
Are men better politicians than women? My guess is that the average, rational, non-sexist person would say, "No freaking way! Both genders are more than capable to be politicians." Well, too bad that such a substantial amount of people disagree.

In a recent survey, when presented with the statement, "Most men are better suited emotionally to politics than most women," 33% agreed.

What does that even mean? "Better suited emotionally"? Do they think that women are just going to break down crying when presented with a difficult task? Are they afraid we're going to get our menstrual blood all over the immaculate White House?

When presented with: "A preschool child suffers if his or her mother works," 41% agreed.

Because clearly, a child could never be taken care of by his/her father. And obviously, a woman can't juggle both work and family.

And on the statement, "It's God's will that women care for children," 31% agreed.

If that were true, I wonder why God created woman as a being who is strong, determined, and physically and emotionally capable of working hard, rather than as a brainless baby-maker with no goals and aspirations.

I don't know how much these views will affect the polls, because you have to keep in mind that most of the people who voted "yes" on these statements are very religious, namely Evangelicals, and their most important issue is abortion. They're going to vote for the party who believes that abortion is a crime, even if it means leaving the country in the hands of an emotionally unstable woman who should be home taking care of her children.

What next?

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2 comments: to “ Are women "meant" to be politicians?


  • September 18, 2008 at 1:03 PM  

    This is an interesting (though not surprising) study. In my psych class last semester, we went over similar studies about how people perceive the world to be. The interesting thing is that whenever questions are framed this way and ask if people agree, they often choose the stereotype because they think things are still this way. However, if a question is framed to reflect their own experience and that of people they know, they often go AGAINST the stereotype.

    The problem is that people have a hard time projecting their own reality when considering the greater population b/c they think they're the exception. I'm not sure if that's good or bad news, but thought I'd share.


  • September 18, 2008 at 9:49 PM  

    So when I was in preschool I suffered as a result of my mother working? Funny... and I thought it taught me how to be strong and develop work ethic. Oh well!

    BTW there are studies that show that most children benefit (communication wise, and emotionally) from being in day care, because it gives them the vital experience of interacting with peers. So it's not the end of the world.