Statistically speaking, there has never been a better time to be a woman in politics. Optimists point to the growing number of female elected leaders as a sign of progress; last year, more women served as parliamentarians, ministers, and heads of state than ever before. The United States is no exception to this trend, with women running for office—and winning—in record numbers in elections in 2020. President Joe Biden also made U.S. history by choosing the first woman and woman of color as vice president and selecting more female cabinet leaders than any of his predecessors.
But simply counting the number of women in political office does not provide a full picture of women’s political power, either in the United States or elsewhere. In fact, doing so distorts perceptions of progress and reinforces the flawed assumption that simply increasing the number of women in high-level political positions is a silver bullet for women’s political empowerment. As policymakers in the Biden administration focus on implementing the Women, Peace, and Security Implementation Plan and on retooling U.S. foreign policy to better support women’s political leadership abroad, they must move beyond a narrow focus on numeric representation. Understanding—and measuring—women’s political empowerment in more comprehensive terms is the only way to make sustainable progress on gender equality.
