by Kayme Moon

Created on: April 18, 2009

Women and politics just don't seem to mix. They try, but despite our civilizations living in a post year-2000 equality bang, women just don't seem to get the fair hand when it comes to politics, in everything from how they are viewed by voters to how they are portrayed by the media. Because of the wall of opposition they face by simply seeking to enter a political race of any kind, women are less likely to attempt to enter any of them, leaving men to do the dirty work.

Traditionally, men are the politicians. It's always been the men who have been portrayed as bringing home the bacon and being the leaders of whatever groups they find themselves in. It's not that women aren't capable, simply that the stereotypes of the sexes always portray the male as having the leadership-like qualities that are required for positions of power. Unfair? Certainly. But women running for political positions is a relatively new development, at least in the sense where you see people like Hilary Clinton running for the most powerful position on the planet.

This stereotype affects everyone from the possible politicians themselves to the actual voters, who are arguably the most important people in a political race (unless, some might say, they are using Diebold machines). Voters have openly admitted to choosing a man over a woman simply because of the sex of the candidates. While men have been running the countries and other things for centuries, women in the United States, for example, have only been allowed to vote for decades now. There's a deep bias against women that may still stick with a lot of potential voters.

The way the media portrays women also plays a large and unhelpful part. While men may be recognized for their accomplishments, their war records, their legislation and their policies, women may be subjected to critique about the smaller details such as their wardrobe (everything from what they're wearing to how much they spent on said clothing) and what they do in their personal life, which may be completely irrelevant to their campaign, but is actually sometimes more common than the actual discussion of their politics. This in turn has an effect on voters and can be extremely detrimental to any woman's campaign.

There is a definite separation of the sexes when it comes to politics, and because of the imbalances, many women will simply avoid trying to get in to the world of politics in the first place. Until this unfair opposition and separation begins to die down, this avoidance of politics by women will probably continue to be a common trend.

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