- Female representation.
We've been hearing a lot about it this past year.
Like Tide Pods and the undeniable chemistry
in A Star is Born.
No, not Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
I'm talking about Sam Elliot and his own mustache.
(smooching)
Where were we?
But why is female representation in America important?
This is Desi Lydic Womansplains.
(upbeat music)
Now the reason we've been hearing so much
about female representation is the 2018 midterms.
A record number of women won seats in Congress,
which is great.
But remember that's only 24% of Congress,
and women make up 51% of the population.
So the vast majority of policymakers
have never even experienced ovulation or childbirth,
or catcalling, except Ted Cruz,
he's definitely been catcalled.
Except it's usually people shouting "smile less."
I feel for you, buddy.
And representation is important.
Research shows that when women are in politics,
it's more likely women's rights will advance
in areas like pay equity, healthcare, family leave.
Those are like the Hemsworth brothers of policy.
(thunder crashes)
Plus women are better at getting stuff done for everyone,
because we tend to be more bipartisan.
Even I was bipartisan for a brief time in college.
Me and my roommate Abby.
Sometimes I wonder which way she went.
It was a time to experiment.
♪ You were just waiting for me to finally come around ♪
But to understand why we're only at 24% representation,
we need to take a look back at our history.
When America was founded, all of our leaders were men.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence
was a serious sausage fest, which by the way
is why we eat so many hot dogs on the Fourth of July.
What a patriot.
The first step in female representation
was fighting for the right to vote,
which began in 1848 at the first women's rights convention.
A group of abolitionists led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Lucretia Mott wrote the Declaration of Sentiments,
which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence,
making it not only the beginning of women's suffrage,
but also the first all-female reboot.
Thankfully, Twitter trolls hadn't been invented yet.
And those women didn't just talk about representation,
they fought to make it happen.
In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested and tried
for even attempting to vote.
Susan B. was the Cardi B. of her time.
You couldn't fuck with her even if you wanted to.
And their struggle ultimately paid off.
In 1920, America ratified the 19th Amendment,
granting women the right to vote.
Which meant it was time to party!
Except it was Prohibition, so we couldn't
properly celebrate for another 13 years.
The entire 20th century was full of firsts
for women in government.
The first female representative and senator,
The first major party presidential candidate,
the first black woman in Congress,
the first lady space princess,
and the first female vice presidential candidate.
We were proving that women belong in powerful jobs,
and also bullshit ceremonial jobs, like vice president.
Then, after the 1992 election,
the number of women in Congress jumped all the way up to 54
in what became known as the Year of the Woman.
Though for me, 1992 was the year of the hammer pant.
I think I pulled it off.
Since then, we've broken even more barriers,
including the first woman speaker of the house
and first woman to be a major party's nominee for president.
I forget how that election ended.
No!
Let's just move on.
And even after all the progress we've made,
the US is still only ranked 79th in female representation
out of 193 countries.
Which, coincidentally, is the same ranking
I had at my high school dive meet.
(screaming)
Still stings.
But organizations like Emily's List and She Should Run
are working to fix that by encouraging women
to enter political races.
Visit supermajority.com/cc to join the movement
for gender equity, and for more on female represenation
around the world, be sure to watch
Desi Lydic Abroad, Monday, May, 13th, on Comedy Central.
♪ I'm a bad girl, I'm a bad girl ♪