I Calculated the Year We Can Expect to See Gender Equality in Politics
Hillary Clinton’s run for president may have sped up the time to gender equality in politics by 12 years. What could a Harris presidential bid do?
There’s no way around it: The sexist rhetoric currently being leveled against Kamala Harris is dizzying and infuriating to many. Some women are expressing fears that the progress we’ve made in politics has regressed when faced with the blatant attacks on Harris’ gender. And let’s not even start with the racism.
But if science has shown us one thing about the psychology of discrimination, it’s that rare, or, “other,” equates to threatening. As long as women remain anomalies in elected positions, they will continue to be attacked and degraded for their gender.
However, the flip side of this phenomenon is that increasing normalization of women in politics will equate to wider-spread acceptance, at which point we can expect to see the sexism-based attacks and criticisms decrease.
I’m pissed about the sexism. Luckily, I’m also a statistician. So I set out to answer the question: When will women in politics finally become normal?
