Blog post from Ellen- women in government, pt. 2

Ellen Toobin

Blog Post:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/07/world/international-uk-china-parliament-women.html?_r=1

This article continues my theme from last week, about the integration of women in to foreign governments and how it relates to the theory of liberalism. This article focuses on the lack of integration of women in the government of China. The article contrasts women’s advancement in Chinese business with their continual under representation in government. Chinese women’s economic power and wealth are still lower than men’s. They own 20 percent of business, compared to a world average of 30 percent, however, this number is on the rise.

A startling statistic this article mentions is that though Chinese women are still underrepresented in government, at the annual meeting of china’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) is one fifth women. This is higher than the 17% of the United States Congress who are women.

Again, I ask the question of the importance of women in democracy. Liberalism operates under the assumption that all people have the same desires and thus must be equally represented. This begs the question, is there a correlation between women in government and increased Democracy? If there were more women in the United States government what aspects of foreign policy would me different? Would the government of China adhere to a less Realist and power oriented approach to foreign policy if women were equally represented? Liberalism argues that the more voices that are heard in a government the more peaceful it will be. I hope as a woman, this is true.