Women in Politics

[araisha151]

Anne Wicks and Raylene Lang Dion have created a valid argument in favour of equalizing women and men's roles in the political sphere. To clarify their perspective in "Women in Politics:Still searching for an equal voice," they have implemented the use of logos as their main rhetorical strategy. With statistics like "21.7 percent of Canada's national legislatures are female, compared to Sweden at 47.3 percent, it is easy for us to see the imbalance. However, I think it is the use of pathos that sells this article to the reader. As a woman I find it outrageous that a male cabinet minister would introduce his female colleague by sexualizing a part of her body. What I find more abhorrent is that he got away with it. So while the numbers provided by Wicks and Dion do make me take notice, it is the examples of objectification that have impact. A commonly held belief is that logic appeals more to men and emotion appeals more to women.It makes me wonder if this article was written with that in mind.

Question: Do you think this article was written with an audience gender in mind? And do you think the information in it will affect men and women equally?

Comments

Great question!

[sunshine88]

Hi, I really like your question. I hadn't thought about that when I read the article. Yes I agree that it would probably create emotion in women more than in men because women know what it feels like to be objectified. Also, their examples would definitely relate more to women than to men.

[elowyn]

Really good question. I think that this article was written more for women than men. All the statistics favor the men. Women will definately be affected more by this article, unfortunately, there are still a lot of people that still don't think women belong in politics. Similarily, there are still a lot of people that think that women should be barefoot, pregnant and stuck in the kitchen as well. People need to sit up and take note, gender and race have nothing to do with anyones ability to get things done. I agree that it is outrageous of that male cabinet minister and he should have suffered some sort of discipline. Hopefully more people will read papers like this and work harder to make sure we're better represented in the future.

[rainbow_bunny]

Good question. I think this article was written to expose the existence of gender stereotyping. Women are mostly affected by this, as this also show the discrimination for women for not being fully accepted in the politics. Gender and race should never be an issue. A person should get accepted in any aspect based on qualifications and capabilities.

[japanlove]

Hi Amorena,

This is an excellent question. I think the article is written for women in general. Although I am not specifically supporting the idea of encouraging more women in politics, I found the article was engaging, especially the section which Hillary Clinton and Christy Clark were targetted of their physical appearance.

[araisha151]

I found in interesting you state you are "not specifically supporting the idea of encouraging more women in politics," please explain.

[japanlove]

Hi Amorena,

I think I was not clear of my intended meaning. I am supporting the idea of encouraging qualified individuals into politics regardless of their gender. Therefore I don't believe the idea of supporting only women should enter politics. But as a woman, when I read this article, I was upset of learning the fact of Hillary Clinton and Christy Clark were judged and targetted of this physical appearance by the media. Hope I clarified at this time.