lunes, 6 de julio de 2015

How far are nowadays women influent in politics?

 Since Medieval Times women have had a secondary role as regards politics, even before stories adjust men as primary characters, leaving women aside. But history is past and nowadays we live in a different world, full of changes. So we might ask ourselves, how far are women influential in politics nowadays?
So as to talk about women in politics, we should do a flashback to previous centuries in the whole world, so we could understand certain situations that might explain the present.
We are talking about a world who undervalued women. In the case of Rome, one of the biggest Empires ever,  women  could own land, write their own wills, and appear in court. Some women showed ability as orators in the courtroom, although it was considered a defining pursuit of the most ambitious Roman men. Women were supported in case they spoke with strength and effectiveness, like men. It seemed to be a liberal Empire as regards women, but every time women exercised these rights, they were treated as women with a “viril spirit”, not recognising their own values and self dependence.
Throughout history, we are able to see that until the past three centuries, women have been underestimated. They had to open their path through politics world by the hard way.
This path began to be traveled when in 1869 it was the State of Wyoming, in the United States of America, who became the first sub-national territory to allow women to vote under the protection of the law.
Regards the history of women in politics in modern times, we need to find women such as Susan B. Anthony who was the first US woman to vote in a presidential election in 1872. Pitifully later on, she was arrested for having voted illegally. As expected, she defended her rights and represented courageously her ideals at the trial.
While talking about nations, it was the Isle of Man (paradoxically) the first state to allow women to vote. It is a British dependent state, which is not part of the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man poses the oldest democratic parliament in continuous existence along the world also and became the first state in letting unmarried women and widows who owned lands choose their rulers. But it seemed not the whole world was ready to let women participate in politics. Women who tried to vote along the rest of Europe, were denied.
But the 20th century had been a blessing for women with aims of expressing their opinions, and history would have a drastic twist. As commemorative facts we are able to see how in 1928 women between the age of 21 and 29 were able to vote in Britain. Women got political positions too, like A. Kollontai who was named the Soviet Union’s ambassador in Sweden. Also in 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike  became the first female Prime Minister of the actual state of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, in 1974 María Estela Martínez de Perón succeeded her deceased husband and became the first woman President of Argentina and the first female leader of America. We can also see Margaret Thatcher becoming the Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1979 and winning re-elections in 1983 and 1987.
Looking back to the beginnings of the century and present days, we can see women in politics in Africa, with a female Libyan Prime Minister, a German Chancellor, a Chilean and Indian President, and a re-elected Argentinean President.
In order to conclude, throughout this essay we were able to see with clear examples how the world spinning around women in politics in the past few centuries had changed a habit with hundreds of years of history. Since the beginning of days society was used to seeing how men occupied primary roles in politics and since the first woman was able to vote, the world have crossed a line impossible to cross back again. Year after year women began to be heard until nowadays major powers around the world are or have been governed by women. The world has changed forever and men no longer rule alone.

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