I got real with Teen Vogue about sexism in Politics. Read as I share thoughts on the political sphere and my journey...
by Jillian Richardson
As a result of Hillary Clinton’s run for president, there has been a lot of discussion about sexism in the American government. But unfortunately, the Democratic presidential nominee isn’t the only person who has to deal with misogyny in the political system. Many other women in politics face prejudice because of their gender — and their stories deserve to be heard, as well.
Over the past week, we interviewed 10 women who work with the U.S. government, and learned about moments in their career when they faced prejudice because of their gender. Yet they didn’t let those instances of sexism, big or small, bring them down. Instead, the kept pushing forward — and now they’re all working towards positive change and gender equality.
Erin Schrode: Erin just ran for Congress in Northern California – at 24 years old.
“There’s an unfortunate double standard for women in every aspect of society, but especially in the political sphere,” Erin said. “As my political campaign heated up, the incumbent said to Business Insider that I was justifying my entire campaign based upon my gender and my age. I would say that is the furthest from the truth. There are many, many aspects of my campaign that had weight and did not touch upon those aspects. For me, that was shocking to hear.”
Erin also felt that the way that she had to prepare for events was much different than the experience of her male counterparts. “The amount of thought that went into the way I dressed myself was intense. Do I wear my hair up or down? Do I wear the dress or do I wear the pantsuit? And what does that represent?” Erin said. “Do men sit around talking about this? No! A bunch of men got up on the GOP stage wearing essentially the same tie, but Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren get up on the stage wearing the same color suit and the media goes berserk.”
Read more about incredible women in politics and what they have to say...