The Congressional “Pink Wave”
With more representation in Congress, change is coming
By John Lin
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
THE 115TH CONGRESS was heralded as the most diverse in the history of Capitol Hill. However, the progress was marginal: the House is still barely 19% female, and the Senate only has 21 female senators. Women are still the most underrepresented group in Congress compared to their share of the U.S. population. The 2016 elections did not significantly alter the gender balance in either chamber of Congress. White heterosexual congressmen consist 74% of the Senate and 66% of the House. The 2018 election appears to be extraordinarily different from every past election, however. In fact, a record-breaking 390 women are planning to run for the U.S. House, for instance. There has been nearly a 350% increase in Democratic women challenging incumbents in the U.S. House since 2016. By nearly every metric, women have sought to radically shift the gender imbalance in America.
This movement first sprouted on January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump was first sworn into office. Sarah DeMerchant, the Democratic candidate for Texas State Representative, District 26 (Richmond and Sugar Land), explained the infuriating problem with his rhetoric. “It’s all this stuff like [his “grabbing” comment] that has made a lot of women mad… When he spews venom… we have no choice but to act in defiance.” Trump did not limit his aggressive behavior to words, however. In 2016, America chose a man who was facing more than a dozen sexual assault accusations over one of the most experienced presidential candidates in American history. Women across the United States agreed with DeMerchant’s analysis of the situation, showing up in droves to attend the 2017 Women’s March. The day after Trump’s inauguration, approximately 2.6 million women marched around the world in pink hats.
Donald Trump is merely the face of a society that has repressed women for centuries, however. The root cause for this shift is the anger women feel about the discrimination they face. These problems will likely still linger in the United States long after the 2018 elections. Cynthia Ginyard, Fort Bend County Democratic Party Chairwoman, points out that “this has been bubbling for generations. Election 2016 was just the pivotal point and the pot bubbled over.” The gender pay gap has persisted despite previous governmental efforts to close it. Workplace harassment goes unresolved. The underlying issues that are motivating women right now will continue to push people to the polls in the future.
The root cause for this shift is the anger women feel about the discrimination they face.
However, even if more women are running, that does not necessarily ensure that more women will be elected. 1992 poses a cautionary tale for excited female activists. After a committee composed entirely of white men harshly questioned Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings, a record-breaking number of American women ran for office. The media dubbed 1992 the ‘Year of the Woman’. 47 won in the House and 4 won in the Senate, both of which did break records but did not change the balance of power in Congress much. By 1994, much of this energy faded, and the progress ended. Now, as Americans are watching more women run for office than ever before, it is important to remember the lessons of the past and maintain this grassroots energy. However, times may very well be different. Ginyard firmly believes that “women have come to the point of ‘enough is enough’. [We] have experienced sexism and other ‘isms’ for our lifetimes. The genie has come out of the bottle. It will not be returned.”
There are indications that this wave will change American politics in the long run. Thanks to a tsunami of donations, EMILY’s List has expanded the headquarters and tripled their state and local staff. The organization, which is devoted to electing more pro-choice Democratic women to public office, is building a nationwide infrastructure for the future. Even if some of the enthusiasm buoying the Women’s March fades, EMILY’s List will continue working hard to support female candidates across the nation. This is crucial to their mission of building momentum for future female candidates because having more women elected in down ballot races for mayoral, school board, and municipal positions allows women to have more of an input in decision making on a local level. DeMerchant asserts that “we need equal representation at the table… at every level, from the county, school board, and city to state and national legislatures.”
The underlying issues that are motivating women right now will continue to push people to the polls in the future.
MOREOVER, THIS FLOOD OF FEMALE CANDIDATES is important because mayoral and school board candidates will mean that in the future, women running for the House, the Senate, or statewide office will have additional qualifications. The impacts of this single pink wave will reverberate throughout the political world for decades to come. Even now, two of the four women elected to the Senate in 1992 continue to serve in Congress. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is the highest ranking woman and the third highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) serves as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Additionally, as many states and other nations have found, having more women in office does tend to change governmental policies. After Iceland elected one of the most gender-equal parliaments in the world, the country has made significant progress on parental leave, daycare, and the gender pay gap. Meanwhile, nearly half of the Swedish parliament is female; exactly half of Swedish government ministers are women. They have worked together to create the Swedish Gender Equality Agency. On the other hand, the U.S. is still the only developed nation that does not guarantee paid maternity leave. There is reason to believe that electing more women could change this trend. Georgetown University political scientist Michele Swers concluded that liberal congresswomen co-sponsored around twice as many bills related to women’s health than liberal congressmen. This data shows a strong correlative relationship. When more women are elected, issues that women care about are addressed more frequently. For thousands of women who are running for office across the nation, the work to advance progress continues. The cost of passively watching as liberal priorities are ignored and repealed by Republicans is too high.
This movement is not just a small ripple in a tiny pond. It is a life-changing wave that will shatter gender norms. This rising tide will lift all boats, bringing more women into office than ever before. With more representation, Congress may be able to make more progress on important issues such as family leave and workplace harassment in the future.
