Yea, Uganda Looks like a great place to live and raise kids.
Philly Inquirer - With last weekend's inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil's first female president, the United States fell farther behind the hemisphere's trend toward diverse, inclusive government. The disparity is important because women in power are more likely than men to push policies that promote equality. Brazil's election stands in stark contrast to our November congressional elections, after which the number of women holding seats and leadership positions declined. Furthermore, five women have become elected heads of state in Central and South America since 1990, while not one woman has been a major party's presidential nominee in the United States. The United States is ranked 72d for female legislative representation, below Cambodia, Ecuador, Mozambique, and Uganda. The share of state governors who are women is less than in Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, and Panama.
Before I get rolling let me stress that I'm in no way opposed to females in politics, the men in congress need some kind of distraction (I jest). My objection to this article is strictly based on the argument laid forth by the author, because it is ridiculous.
Really Stephanie McNulty? You've chosen to hang your hat on Uganda, Mozambique, Ecuador and a few other anonymous 3rd world countries? Those are your shining beacons of equality and the pinnacles of democractic stability that you've chosen as the foundation for your argument. Take a look at that picture above, does that pile of squalor look like a place that has their politics figured out?
Couldn't just be that there weren't as many qualified or distinguished woman running for office as you'd like to think huh? Or that instead of blindly voting along gender lines people in this country weigh the candidates stance on issues (or at the very least judge them on who's commercials they liked better)?
The whole piece lacks water because there are no restrictions in place to prevent women (qualified or reality tv stars alike) from running for office just like everyone else. The idea (and it seems like this is what you were getting at) that our government should be made to proportinately reflect society is a strictly european socialist idea (and yea their education systems and economies are doing so much better than ours right now/sarcasm).
But please let me know when your big move to Cambodia is, we'll arrange a fancy send off and everything. And then the rest of us will go back to our much better lives in American, despite the lack of elected women officials.
