Across the globe, we need women to stand for elected office, and we also need to rally around them with a blanket of support, writes Lyanne Nicholl, CEO of 50:50 Parliament.
Right now in the US, balloons are popping and confetti is streaming in celebration of a man who has openly bragged about his ability to ‘grab women by the pussy’, after Donald Trump was announced as the president of the United States of America for the second time. The sound of his election win has stunned many people to silence, it comes with fear for women’s rights and hammers home that misogyny in politics is alive and kicking. This is not about party politics for us, it’s not about red versus blue, it’s about what this win means for women's representation (could Kamala Harris have won if she was a man? Is it that heartbreakingly simple? We’ll never know) and it’s about women’s rights, our autonomy, our safety and our healthcare. We wait to see whether the new administration can try to heal the wounds and divides that this campaign - and all that preceded it - created between the genders. We certainly hope it will try. Having said that, President Trump comes with a well-documented history of abusing women and stood for the Presidency as a convicted felon. This election felt like a no-brainer to the outside world, and now, for women especially, there is a lot of fear for what the repercussions will be. We stood on the edge of a historic moment; as the vote drew closer and the polls were tied, we truly believed that not only were we about to witness the first female President, but a Black female president who would have won by stamping out the misogynistic flames of the ‘old boy’ culture and paving the way for greater equality. Instead, this is a huge step back for representation at a time when we need women’s voices more than ever. From those in Afghanistan whose voices have literally been silenced to now the women in America who have been bleeding out in car parks after being denied healthcare. If you’re not angry, or at least alarmed, I’m afraid you’re not paying attention. The glass ceiling remains intact in America for now, but now is precisely the time to regroup and organise. Across the globe, we need women to stand for elected office, and we also need to rally around them with a blanket of support. The recently increased percentage of women in Parliament is fragile; it is not guaranteed to increase in the next election. Indeed, we might even go backwards. We cannot let that happen. Join the 50:50 movement and #AskHerToStand this November. With the immense challenges our world faces right now, we need equal numbers of women in the room. Now is when we double down; now is when we fight together for our rights.
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