Representation of Gender & Sexuality in Literature

Beyond An Intersectional Attitude towards Race, Gender, and Political Representation

Investigating Gender and Race through Politics

- presented by Vinika Viswambharan (AU190045)

Who gets elected? Who do they represent? What issues do they prioritize? Does diversity in representation make a difference? Race, Gender, and Political Representation approaches these questions about the politics of identity. It is not just about women’s representation or minority representation; it is about how race and gender interact to affect such decisons, behavior, and impact of all individuals—raced women and gendered minorities alike.

Politics is a range of activities that are related to collective decision or other forms of power interaction of people, such as the resource allocation or status. The word politics is derived from the Greek term, politiká, which means "affairs of the cities." Here, we'll examine how race and gender impact choices funding priorities and position, as well as the issues it raises and potential remedies.

It is useful to begin by reflecting on the questions: "What is gender?", "What is race?" and related questions such as: "What is it to be a man or a women?" "What is it to be a White?, Latino, or Asian?" There are several different ways to understand, and so respond to, questions of the form, "What is X?" or "What is it to be an X?"

Although race and gender are often treated as discrete dimensions of social identity, their conceptualization as intersecting categories has become central in some feminist critiques of existing theory. This page examines women's awareness of the intersection of race and gender in relation to attitudes regarding issues manifesting identity politics in women's studies i.e. the marginalization of women of colour.

WAGE GAP BETWEEN GENDER AND RACE

Women working full time in the U.S. are still paid just 83 cents to every dollar earned by men — and the consequences of this gap affect women throughout their lives. The pay gap even follows women into retirement: As a result of lower lifetime earnings, they receive less in Social Security and pensions. In terms of overall retirement income, women have only 70% of what men do.

The history of the gender and racial wage gaps is inextricably linked to the history of labor in America. From depriving Black women of wages under slavery and its aftermath, to creating lasting disparities in health, education and opportunity for Native women through land theft, to the legal and cultural limitations on women’s ability to earn money, our nation’s story is replete with discrimination and its consequences.

The Pay Gap Through Years

Race and the Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is the result of many factors, including race and ethnicity, disability, access to education and age. As a result, different groups of women experience very different gaps in pay. The gender pay gap is a complex issue that will require robust and inclusive solutions.

Note: The most recent data available for all racial groups was collected in 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic limiting the collection of 2020 data.

Gender, Race and Political Ambition

Women may be encouraged to run for office when structural rather than personal challenges are emphasized to explain the gender gap, but effects vary by race.

Women are underrepresented in politics in part because they have less interest than men in running for political office (according to a study conducted by Women and Public Policy Program by Harvard Kennedy School). This gender gap in political ambition has largely been explained in one of two narrative frames:

Supply-side explanations

It emphasizes factors that affect women’s interest in pursuing political office, such as lack of self-confidence, the “second shift” of household work, and career choices influenced by gender role socialization, which may draw women to less competitive paths.

Demand-side explanations

It emphasizes factors in the political system that limit women’s opportunities to pursue political office, in particular lower recruitment of women due to stereotypes and discrimination against them on the basis of gender.

Little is known about how these narratives impact political ambition, especially among women of color, whose challenges and motivations are influenced by the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity. However, past research has shown that attributing failure to discrimination (a demand-side explanation) can increase performance and self-esteem among women and/or people of color by allowing them to discount the likelihood of personal failing.

On the other hand, emphasizing individual factors in failure (supply-side explanations) can lead to stereotype threat; that is, a situation in which women and/or people of color feel at risk of confirming negative stereotypes, which can lead to avoidance.

When using a demand-side explanation pointing to lower party recruitment of women, rather than a supply-side explanation pointing to personal factors such as a lack of confidence in qualifications or lack of time due to caregiving responsibilities, the overall gender gap in political ambition disappeared—but effects were mixed for women of color.

Overall, women of all racial/ethnic backgrounds reported significantly lower political ambition than men (-0.16 vs. 0.08, with a gender gap of 0.24). Political ambition varied among men and women across racial/ethnic groups, but the gender gap remained similar.
Overall, women of all racial/ethnic backgrounds who read a supply explanation reported significantly lower political ambition compared to women who read a demand explanation (-0.13 vs. 0.07). However, effects were inconsistent across racial groups.
Asian women and white women reported significantly higher political ambition after reading a demand explanation than after reading a supply explanation.
However, Black women reported lower political ambition after reading a demand explanation than after reading a supply explanation, although the difference was not significant.
Latina women reported no difference in political ambition whether they read a demand explanation or a supply explanation.
Overall, men of all racial/ethnic backgrounds had similar levels of political ambition regardless of whether they read a supply or demand explanation.
After a supply explanation, women continued to have significantly lower political ambition than men; however, after a demand explanation, women and men expressed similar levels of political ambition, closing the ambition gender gap.

These findings suggest that emphasizing personal barriers to women’s political ambition may contribute to the gender gap in political representation, while an emphasis on outside challenges may reduce the gap by encouraging more women to run. However, messages that encourage white and Asian women may dissuade black women and overlook Latinas, indicating the need for a better intersectional understanding of women’s interest in political office.

Methodology of this study

The study recruited 656 college students or graduates who were US citizens (251 women; 27 Asian women, 24 Black women, 34 Latinx women, 157 white women) through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of 7 short paragraphs, each offering a different explanation for women’s political underrepresentation, chosen to reflect dominant emphases in current US scholarship. Approximating the balance of dominant perspectives, 5 conditions offered supply-side explanations emphasizing personal factors, namely, time, qualifications, socialization, knowledge, and background; and 2 offered demand-side explanations emphasizing a factor in the political system, namely, recruitment. After reading the assigned paragraph, participants responded to 3 questions measuring political ambition.

Identity Politics

Identity politics refers to the tendency for people of a particular background to form political alliances, while moving away from traditional broad-coalition party politics. It is considered to have played a hugely important role in advancing civil rights for many minority groups

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The dramatic rise of identity politics in mainstream politics is often regarded as both a cause and effect of the rise of populism across the globe. According to The Guardian, “when groups feel threatened, they retreat into tribalism”, causing groups of people to become “more defensive, more punitive, more us-versus-them”.

CRITICISMS

Identity politics seems to be experiencing a surge in recent times, which has led some people to decry this approach to politics, calling it divisive. Critics of identity politics claim that it only deepens the divides that exist between different groups in society—black versus white, straight versus gay, Jew versus Arab, Sunni versus Shia, Protestant versus Catholic, and so on.

Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others. A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas. It can be applied to Gender Studies as well.

Works Cited

Boris, Eileen. “Gender, Race, and Rights: Listening to Critical Race Theory.” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 6, no. 2, 1994, pp. 111–124, https://doi.org10.1353/jowh.2010.0349.

Celis, Karen, et al. Introduction: Gender and Politics: A Gendered World, a Gendered Discipline. Oxford University Press, 2013.

“Explainer: What ‘critical Race Theory’ Means and Why It’s Igniting Debate.” Reuters, Reuters, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-critical-race-theory-means-why-its-igniting-debate-2021-09-21/.

Holman, Mirya R., and Monica C. Schneider. “Gender, Race, and Political Ambition: How Intersectionality and Frames Influence Interest in Political Office.” Politics, Groups & Identities, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, pp. 264–280, https://doi.org10.1080/21565503.2016.1208105.

Jones, Marian. “What Are Identity Politics? A Vision of Solidarity Rooted in Black Feminism.” Teen Vogue, 26 Feb. 2021, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-are-identity-politics-black-feminism.

Lopez, German. “The Battle over Identity Politics, Explained.” Vox, 2 Dec. 2016, https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/2/13718770/identity-politics.

Power, Gabriel. “What Is Identity Politics?” The Week, 21 Nov. 2019, https://www.theweek.co.uk/104473/what-is-identity-politics.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Critical Race Theory.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Sept. 2021.

“The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap.” AAUW : Empowering Women Since 1881, 3 Feb. 2020, https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/.

Researchgate.Net, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227429620_Race_and_gender_discrimination_in_the_labor_market_An_urban_and_rural_sector_analysis_for_Brazil. Accessed 22 June 2022.

VINIKA VISWAMBHARAN

AU190045

SEM VI

REPRESENTATION OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN LITERATURE

vin001@chowgules.ac.in

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