SGA Women in Politics panel addresses lack of female presence in political sphere
Student Government Association Vice President Mariah Ureta explains her position on gender inequality in politics during the panel discussion of Women in Politics on March 25, 2015 in the Park Library Auditorium.
The Student Government Association hosted a Women in Politics panel in the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium, Wednesday, encouraging attendees to challenge what they knew about the political sphere and women involvement.
Panelists included current SGA Vice President Mariah Urueta, former SGA President Marie Reimers, student activist Portia Brown and CMU alumna Hayley Alderman.
Opening the panel, Reimers gave a brief introduction on notable women in politics.
“It’s so crazy to me that we as adults don’t question the lack of women in politics,” Brown said. “It’s interesting that (as we grow up) we lose that sense of questioning or wanting to change things that seem very simple and are so outwardly unfair.”
The event featured short clips from the documentary "Miss Representation," which broke down the lack of women in politics by percentage. A small YouTube clip highlighted the lack of women featured on American currency.
“(The lack of women in politics) describes how blind we’ve become to women in general,” Alderman said. “We have 17 women in the U.S. Senate right now. Out of 100 people, that is absolutely ridiculous.”
Panelists explained the only state to have an all-female governor, representative and senator is Rhode Island. Due to its small size, the state only has one representative, as opposed to other states like Texas, which has 36 representatives.
The panel closed with having an open and informal discussion between panelists and audience members on ideas such as the wage gap and women in the national abortion debate.
“The issue with (the wage gap) is the easiest issue to get behind,” Reimers said. “The way about which we are going about fixing the wage gap is not the right mentality. We have to address the racism, sexism and women’s value in general in the work place.”
She said women are viewed as being worth less pay by employers. Reimers hoped for a change in thinking when addressing the wage gap between men and women.
“Women are not seen as being as valuable as men in any sector of the economy, the political sphere, the social sphere, and that is why we are being paid less,” she said. “It’s not because of some sexist old boss sitting behind the table saying ‘Oh we’re going to pay this woman less money because of her work,’ – no, it’s because when we look at women workers, we see less money.”
