March 20, 2025
By Isabella Bartlett
Managing Editor
This article is part of a six-part in-depth reporting project about women’s issues.
Despite progress in recent years, women remain underrepresented in American politics, holding only a fraction of elected positions. This lack of representation raises concerns about whose voices are heard in policy decisions that affect everyone.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, women make up just 28.2% of Congress, 30.6% of statewide elective positions and 33.4% of statewide legislative positions. A decade ago, these statistics were 19.4%, 24.8% and 24.6%, respectively.
In January 2017, former Vice President Mike Pence posted a photo on X that showed 28 men and one woman, President Donald Trump’s senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway, at a meeting with the Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers. They discussed whether a new bill introduced to Congress should include health care benefits, including maternity services.
Senior Izabel Graziani, who took Mr. Ricciardi’s Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics class last year, said women and men have different experiences and ideals, which is why it is crucial for women to be represented in politics.
“The country is not fully represented when only white cisgender men are in charge of what policies to enact or reject,” Graziani said.
She said she is particularly inspired by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Ginsburg held this position from 1993 to 2020, spending her 27-year term advocating for health care, voting rights and women’s rights.
“I instantly admired her confidence and assurance of her abilities in government. Her strength as a member of the Supreme Court taught me from a young age that my gender is not a restriction or obstacle to my ambitions,” Graziani said.
She said for women to be regarded as equal, people must abandon discriminatory ideas.
“The question should not be what can women do to overcome the male advantage in politics, but rather what men should do to even the disadvantages in this competitive field,” Graziani said.
Junior Emily Salazar, who is enrolled in AP U.S. Government and Politics, said women must advocate for opportunities that ensure equality.
“The country is not fully represented when only white cisgender men are in charge of what policies to enact or reject.”
“[Women] can support each other, push for policy changes and expand their power throughout society with strong leadership,” Salazar said.
She said the increasing inclusion of women in politics highlights a viable career path for young women.
“Men still hold the majority of power surrounding politics, and women’s political opinions are often undermined and excluded, [but] more women hold office now than ever before, inspiring young women to see politics as an achievable career path,” Salazar said.
Like Salazar, history teacher Mr. Duus said females feel encouraged to pursue political careers when they see other women in these roles.
“It illustrates for young women that any gender can hold power,” Duus said.
He said an important female role model in the field of politics is Angela Merkel, who was the only woman to be chancellor of Germany. She held this top leadership position from 2005 to 2021.
“[Merkel] was basically ubiquitous in European politics for years and became essentially identified with Germany in a way that is not that common for modern politicians,” Duus said. “It [is] useful to see that those highest offices and that [level] of power can also be embodied by women.”
Duus said due to misogynistic biases, women looking to hold top governmental positions must work harder than men.
“The first female president of the United States will have to be someone who is a generational candidate,” Duus said. “Realistically, any minority group that wants to get into [a profession has] to be twice as good as everyone else.”
