Ambition Has A Dangly Bit

by digby

Jaana Goodrich (aka the fabulous Echidne of the Snakes) has a must read article in today’s Alternet about the “inner glass ceiling” that people have recently ben telling us that women have. See, the reason there aren’t more women in politics is because they just don’t have ambition. Goodrich delves in to the studies that were trotted out as evidence of this thesis and reveals they don’t show any such thing.

There are many startling statistics in the piece, but this one really gets to me:

Let’s add another layer of complication to the notion of an “internal glass ceiling” by noting that the United States ranks 68th in the world in the proportion of women in national legislatures. Either 67 countries have women with more ambitious genes or both cultural values and the institutional aspects of political systems matter. It also means that the United States could do a lot better in this particular international competition.

68th?

I urge you to read the whole thing. As should be obvious to anyone, the United States is backward on gender equality and the fact that perfectly normal people interpret scientific data to suggest it’s because women just “don’t want it enough” is insulting. We’ve got a long way to go,baby.

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