“Year of the Woman?” Yeah, Not So Much.

Yeah, so, you know this “political” stuff people have been talking about for some reason since Tuesday? Well, I know they were sort of hard to miss but if you haven’t heard there was midterm elections this past Tuesday. Okay, okay. You’ve caught on to my sarcasm. The midterm elections have taken over virtually every aspect of the average American’s flow of information. There is coverage on TV, radio, newspapers, Facebook , Twitter, etc. detailing every result of the midterm elections and the implications that these results have for our country. Basically the gist of it being that the Democrats screwed up, the Republicans have shown that they are not joking around, there will be more fighting between parties in the future, the “country has spoken,” and that the Tea Party has gained an astounding amount of power.

Right, we get it. But you know what isn’t making headlines, talk shows and its way into the typical conversation? That for the first time in thirty years, the number of women in Congress has actually come to a plateau. In previous election years (for the past thirty years) the number of female representatives in Congress has gradually increased. Yet, this so-called “Year of the Woman” proves that while there were some high profile women this past year in politics (Clinton’s run for the Presidency, Sarah Palin, Nikki Haley, and Carly Fiorina and Christine O’Donnell to name a few), a disproportionate amount of media coverage was placed on these women despite the overall number of women running for seats in the House or the Senate. As of now, there are only 90 women in Congress (that’s House and the Senate for those not familiar with the system…) That breaks down into 17 in the Senate and 73 in the house. WOW. Now this is pretty pathetic. Now, do I want women like Christine O’Donnell (who lost anyways) or Nikki Haley (who did win in South Carolina) representing my interests in Congress anyways? Well, no, not particularly. At the same time however, the notion of gender “equality” in the United States becomes extremely comical when looking at these numbers. How in the hell am I supposed to feel like our government officials represent my interests and my needs when only a tiny minority of them can even remotely relate to many of the issues that I find most important?

Before this past election, it was very difficult for myself, and I’m sure many other women, to identify with a candidate who really understood things from a woman’s point of view. I am sad to say that after this past election, I feel that my issues and my needs are more irrelevant than ever to elected officials. It seems as though our country seems to be moving in a backwards direction instead of the progressive (in terms of representation in government at least) streak that we were having. Not to mention a plateau in the representation of women in Congress, we now no longer have a single-that’s right not one-African-American representative in the Senate. Wow. I’m glad to know that my “interests” and minority “interests” are now being tended to by a bunch of rich white dudes, that really makes me feel at ease since they clearly can “relate” to the “average American” (read: white, middle-class male).