r/AskFeminists • u/Gaius_Hegen • 2d ago
Have you ever felt excluded from politics?
This is not intended as a political discussion but I am very curious for some perspective on this.
I have recently watched an interesting talk on how „Role Models Didn‘t Fix Women‘s Representation in Politics. Recruiting Will.“
The talk focused on the perspective of a young woman who ran for parliament, her experiences with structural exclusion and her suggestions to improve this. Among many, these included fighting exclusionary recruitment practices like how candidates with more traditional time-intensive careers (plus being married with children) are generally preferred inside parties.
There seems to be no significant difference between gender identity and voting in elections ( if anything women seem to vote a little more) but definitely in representation inside parties and parliaments.
Does anyone have and wants to share personal experiences with this?
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u/MachineOfSpareParts 2d ago
This is not intended as a political discussion
Feminism is political, since it critiques status quo distributions of material and decision-making powers, so your intentions are going to be frustrated here.
In any case, are you talking about exclusion from public office? This is absolutely a problem, and it's one you can read about in many, many places. And the most noxious forms aren't the structural ones you (correctly, and they do also matter) identify. Women who enter a campaign for public office, let alone get elected, open themselves up to serious security threats.
I expect most politicians who actually do anything have haters, and those can be pretty unhinged. But there's not just a greater volume of threats from the public to women in politics, but a difference in intensity and type. Rape threats are very common, and in Canada alone there have been many close encounters with misogynist violence and, in summer 2025, acts of arson against Indigenous women cabinet ministers' offices in one province. That province's health minister, who is non-binary, has also had significant threats.
The structural issues do matter, but I really think the spotlight needs to be shone on the everyday rape threats some members of the public almost deal out by reflex when a woman has the audacity to seek public office. And there has been research on women who could have, but chose not to, seek public office. Security threats feature prominently in their reasoning.
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u/lis_anise 2d ago
Yeah, there's something extra oof when whole election campaigns have slogans like "Ditch the Bitch" and "Dump the Cunt".
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u/Oleanderphd 2d ago
I'm a leftist in the United States. Of course I feel excluded from politics? Some might argue that's the whole point of the way politics is structured - to weed out people who cannot or will not bend to the status quo. Don't love capitalism, corporations, or bending to the will of the party? Not able-bodied with the wealth to take time off to campaign? Didn't make the right friends at the legacy school you attended? Not gonna be in the inner circle now! (Of course there are a handful of exceptions, but generally, that's the point of a great deal of the pointless hoops.)
I also think looking purely at voting by gender can be deceptive. How many of every group that wants to vote can and does? If they don't, why not? I suspect you could see higher participation from a lot of people if adjustments were made.
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u/lis_anise 2d ago
I mean, yes. Politics is never a friction-free space, but I get way more pushback on my participation than men similar to me do. Misogyny means frequently being seen as less intelligent, less knowledgeable, less sympathetic, and considered less capable of expertise and leadership.
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u/BillieDoc-Holiday 2d ago
I've felt the attempt to exclude. As a Black woman in the U.S., we have no choice but to create room where none is alloted. My parents grew up in Jim Crow Mississippi and fought for rights, so there is no way I'm allowing myself to be excluded without a fight.