Women in Politics

In class, we learned that Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman to run on a major party presidential ticket in 1984. I became interested in how woman are doing in terms of politics and how this has changed over the years in the US.
In 1992, the US government underwent the "Year of the Woman", where a record number of women (especially Democratic women) were elected to Congress. Many historians credit this to the Anita Hill hearings in 1991, where a woman was grilled by Congressmen after alleging that she had been sexually harassed by a Supreme Court justice nominee. Sound familiar? That's because it is. In 2018, Christine Ford testified before Congress that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her. Soon after, two other women also spoke out, accusing him of two more cases of sexual assault.
So what do these hearing have to do with women running for government? In both of these cases, the nominee was confirmed to the Supreme Court (for reference, they are both serving together right now). Also, in both 1992 and 2018, a large number of Congress members decided not to run for reelection. In 1992, there was a large scandal that left 40 seats open for grabs. And so, fed up with the way politics were running and presented with an opportunity, women ran for election and won in record numbers. In the end, 24 women won seats in the House, which was far beyond what had been the norm before then (1-2 women at a time only). In 2018, we saw a similar phenomenon: a lot of seats for grab and passionate women looking to fix issues in the government.
In the end, we are not nearly close to having equality in government. But we're getting there. In 2016, a woman won the popular vote (even if Trump won the electoral college), showing that people are starting to come to terms with the idea that a woman is fit for government). Also, we saw another wave of women being elected to Congress, which, if the result is anything like that of the 1992 election, should help increase women in Congress in the future as well. And in the 2020 election, some of the most popular democratic candidates are women, like Elizabeth Warren. While the circumstances that made the 1992 and 2018 elections wildly successful for women were upsetting, at least some good came out of the trials of Kavanaugh and Thomas: it created the need for instant change and motivated women to work to make these changes. And since the 1992 elections, organizations like Emily's List that helps to prepare female candidates and helps them organize their campaigns. Hopefully, the US will eventually be able to have gender equality within its government.

Sources:
https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/rise-women-us-politics
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/2/17983746/year-of-the-woman-1992
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/27/politics/brett-kavanaugh-hearing/index.html
https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/Assembling-Amplifying-Ascending/Women-Decade/