Why I Still Call Myself a Feminist

Last night on"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she will be starting the legal process of running for the Democratic presidential nomination, joining the many other women (Harris, Gabbard, Warren, Gillibrand to name a few) seeking to become the Democratic nominee. While some are ecstatic about the sheer volume of female hopefuls, exclaiming, "this is Hillary's legacy", others fear that they are attesting to the idea that there is no woman "right" for the nomination. Perhaps their concern is valid; every announcement is followed by mass controversy, from Gabbard being too young to Warren being too radical, albeit every candidate (regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation) sparks controversy. Do female candidates spark more than their male counterparts though? We are now back to the question "What role, if any, does gender play in politics?" Personally, I believe that women do spark more controversy, even among democrats and especially for this election. The sad truth is that many worry about a woman's ability to do the job as well or that she would be sexually assaulted while in office; this is a mindset that challenges female candidates in addition to being held to a double standard. Moreover, hundreds of thousands are upset with Trump, making the pressure to find the right nominee to rival him more intense than ever. I know this holds true for me. I would love to see a woman as president in 2020, but I refuse to vote for a candidate solely because of their gender. I'm looking for the "right" first female president and my standards are sky high. To conclude, I pose the question "Can a woman win the 2020 presidential election and, more importantly, will the "right" woman choose to run?

In the last election there was a record of 117 women who won office.100 of them were democrats 17 of them were republican's. More than 250 women were on the ballot. Women do not have equal representation in Congress. About one in five members of the 116th Congress will be women to put that into perspective women are approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population. Women deserve to have equal representation and equal rights in the world. The last election showed how powerful women are and I believe in the future those numbers will just continue to grow.

In the recent midterms, there were a record number of women running for office! This reignited the conversation that arouse after the 2016 election: what role does gender play in an election? Are women and men held to different standards? Many Hillary Clinton supporters said that if Clinton acted like Trump during the presidential debates, she would be viewed as overly aggressive and temperamental. I used to hold this belief, but I recently came across a project that made me question the ideas I previously held. The project is called "Her Opponent," and it is a re-staging of excerpts of the 2016 presidential debates with gender-reversed casting. In other words, they act out certain parts of the debates, word for word, with a male actor speaking and acting like Hilary Clinton and a female actor speaking and acting like Donald Trump. These gender-reversed roles force watchers to reevaluate their personal biases and possibly develop a new perspective. I encourage you all to watch this short clip: and comment your reaction! I would love to have a discussion on if/how the video changed your perspective on female leadership.