Alice Eagly
JENNIFER PISCOPO ARGUES that gender quotas in other countries work like the wave of a magic wand, quickly and profoundly correcting for women’s lack of political representation. So, why don’t we legislate quotas in the United States? Apart from the procedural hiccups Piscopo alludes to, there are social and cultural barriers—challenges that only slow, incremental changes can overcome.
In the United States, despite broad public support for the idea of equality—82 percent of men and 81 percent of women in a 2018 Pew poll endorsed “having about an equal number of women and men” in high political offices—not one of the candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 has proposed quotas, nor did the Democratic Party platform of 2016. Something must be holding Americans back.