It is no doubt that the US has sharply fallen behind most established democracies such as European countries with respect to enhancing gender equality and women representation in national politics. Even as the US government gears towards strengthening its commitment on matters concerning women representation in active national politics, the majority of women in the country remain underrepresented either at state or federal level. Notably, while there has been a current uptick in the number of women running for political offices, there still exists a huge gap between the number of male elected leaders and their female colleagues (“Horowitz,Igielnik, and Parker”). It is such occurrences which statistics prove the need for gender inclusivity and equality, not only in political matters but also on social and economic issues such as employment and elections. One of the movies which are relevant in discussing the existence of gender inequality and women underrepresentation in the US political issues is the Iron Jawed Womenmovie.

The Iron Jawed Movie is an American drama film that was directed by Katja von Garnier and released in 2004. The movie stars some of the famous female characters like Hilary Swank, Julia Ormond, Anjelica Huston, and Frances O’ Connor. The movie is about the desire and the commitment of some women in the US, led by their leader Alice Paul, to ensure that women are given the right to vote. After returning from England where they participated in the Women’s Social and Political Union, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, present a plan to the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NASWA) to advocate for women’s voting rights in the US (“von Garnier”). However, the leader of the suffrage association finds Alice and Burn’s ideas to be too forceful and decline to be part of their campaign. The two women are therefore forced to go ahead with their plan which involved marching during President Wilson’s inauguration and even protesting outside the Whitehouse. It is such actions which make them arrested for obstructing of traffic and later sent to prison. The brutal and calamitous treatment of these women in prison gets the attention of the public, forcing the President to ratify the 19^th Amendment, thus giving women the right to vote just like their male colleagues.

After viewing the Iron Jawed Women movie, two current issues that I feel would be worthy of protest in the US today are the skewed gender roles and salary or wage inequalities against women. It is correct to recognize the fact that women in the US have made tremendous strides in the aspect of gender gaps between women and men. However, there are still many instances where women are still discriminated and stereotyped because of their gender. For example, male employees are likely to enjoy higher salaries than female employees within the same job group even though both of these two groups of employees may be possessing the same skills and experience or academic qualifications for the position they occupy. Also, women are highly disadvantaged on matters of politics because of the skewed gender roles where women seem to be assigned more family roles and expectations than their female colleagues. I, therefore believe that these two socio-economic and political issues are worth protesting.

The failure of Hillary Clinton to ascend to the most powerful seat in the world, the President of the United States of America (POTUS), indicates how far the country is when it comes to electing its first female president. Based on the determination and resilience portrayed by Alice and Burn in ensuring that women in the US are given the right to vote, it is self-evident that women must be ready to defy the social or political odds to enable them to achieve equality and enhance their stature in the country. I believe that just like Alice and Burn, women in the US today should champion for the federal government to amend the constitution and enact a law which assigns some number of seats both in the house of congress and senate specifically for women. By doing this, the government will be able to reduce the gap between male and female leaders in both houses and also enhance the degree of women representation in national politics and decision-making processes.

Works Cited

Horowitz Menasce Juliana, Igielnik Ruth, and Parker Kim. Women and Leadership 2018. Wide gender and party gaps in views about the state of female leadership and the obstacles women face. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/09/20/women-and-leadership-2018/. 20^th September 2019.

von Garnier Katja. “The Iron Jawed Women Movie” YouTube, Commentary by Ron Olson, 23^rd November 2016.www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOrD0tH_WaM.

 
Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?