Gender Equity and Political Empowerment: We’re Number 37

In terms of political power and gender equity, the World Economic Forum (WEF) noted that the United States had jumped from 53rd place during the latter years of the first Trump administration to 37th place, thanks in part to the Biden administration’s executive appointments. The WEF calculations for gender equity and political empowerment considered three criteria: the percent of women in the national legislature; percent of women in ministerial positions; and years with a female head of state.

Gender equity also means a different focus on lawmaking and public policy. As Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat-New York) lamented a decade ago, “Basic rights that our mothers and grandmothers successfully fought for are still on the table. I can guarantee you that if Congress was 51 percent women, we wouldn’t be wasting a day on whether women should have affordable contraception. We would be talking about the economy.

Sources: “Global Gender Gap Report, 2021,” World Economic Forum, March 2021, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf; Richard V. Reeves, “Congress Needs Gender Parity Quotas,” Brookings Institution, April 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/congress-needs-gender-parity-quotas/. Gillibrand quoted in Charlotte Alter, “Kirsten Gillibrand on Why She Hates the Phrase ‘Having It All,’” Time, October 1, 2014, https://time.com/3453839/kirsten-gillibrand-have-it-all/.