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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