How does patriarchy prevent women from entering politics?

Proceedings of ‏The 4th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2020

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/4th.iachss.2020.09.223

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How does patriarchy prevent women from entering politics?

Kalfa Maria

ABSTRACT: 

In this paper, I will show that the stereotypes about genders affect their participation in politics. How are women evaluated in politics? What role does external appearance play? Why do so few stand up for what a woman has to say and focus on what she is wearing, how beautiful she is, what her sexuality is, what about her role as a husband or mother? Society values ​​beauty in relation to women in a way that tends to present it as the best quality. When a woman ultimately succumbs to the demands of society, she is characterized as naive, stupid, superficial, while when she disobeys she is again criticized as ‘this is not a woman’ and various such cosmetics for women who do not meet the expectations of ‘ideal’ beauty and ‘ideal’ femininity. If a male politician does not meet the standards of beauty of a society, there is no problem, but if a female politician does not respond, a culprit who ignores studies, experience, capacity, consistency, etc., erupts and focuses exclusively on her external features. How does this categorization relate to the expectations we have of women and how can that change?

Keywords: politics, gender, biases, authority.