Why Women Often Don't Run For Political Offices
Politics involves dealing with issues, negotiating and brokering deals with allies and enemies, public speaking, hard decision making, endless socializing and staying popular with your constituency.
Sadly, the current political landscape is like a war zone with winners and losers and people at logger heads preparing for the next battle while little gets done. It is definitely not a career for the faint hearted.
With all the conflicts and hard decisions being made, and the unique skills required to execute them successfully, one would think politics and public office would be women’s domains, considering that generally women serve, mediate conflicts, are nurturing and good at conflict resolution. However, looking at the political landscape, it is obviously not.
Have you ever wondered why? Or thought to yourself, why don’t more women run for political offices? This wouldn’t be too farfetched considering that generally speaking women possess the skills to make good politicians. Well, if you have, you are not alone.
At a recent Meet and Greet event honoring Congresswoman Jenkins of Kansas, I posed the question, “Why do you think women don't run for office?” to the men in attendance to get their unique perspectives. Their answers are below…
Politics is one of the last heavily male dominated environments. It is entrenched in tradition and is sometimes passed from one generation to another. It’s pretty much a good old boy network.
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Comments (1)
I believe that the world would be a far better place if women ran it, from the Micro (Family) to the Macro (National Leadership and International Diplomacy). Not that women are not human... you are just MORE human, generally less self-centered, and more caring and thoughtful.
It also seems that as far as women's rights and leadership is concerned... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of" insanity (Dickens). Women hold leadership posts in one part of the world and there is sexual slavery in another. But it is that difference, that slight advantage that women have in just being women, that tiny cubic centimeter of chance that may well save this world of ours from destroying civilization and the very planet that provides us life.
I am currently a professor of Educational Leadership and teach courses in Multicultural Education, Leadership, and Higher Education at a Land Grant university in the Northwest US. I have had a varied career in Education, Higher Education, foundations, and Apple Computer. I am a Geek, a technology enthusiast, and believe that technology, and websites like THE WIP, have the potential to change our world… for the better and in ways not possible before.
I took a picture of a young Hindu temple guard last month sitting on his motorcycle, head down… texting. I saw young people on cell phones and the Internet everywhere I traveled in South East Asia. I get the feeling our young people now have the collective connection and interconnection to change the world, in ways that were never possible before. I believe that websites like The WIP are part of that tiny difference, that can make all the difference.
Posted by drmikej | January 19, 2011 5:57 AM