Miss representat - Assignment Example

Miss Representant Victoria Claflin Woodhull was regarded as one of the most radical ladies in the 19th centurythat was accustomed to the plight of women suffrage. Her story resonated with the clamour for gender and equality rights for women that were exhibit by her fiery acts. Foremost, she was a pioneer woman in the banking and brokerage industry in Wall Street (Victoria Woodhull Biography). Moreover, she was a controversial believer and advocate of the free love movement. However, the radical notion of free love movement and its justification failed to impress upon one’s conviction.

This was mainly due to the moral decadence and abuse of the marital sanctity. Furthermore, she was an advocate for women’s right to vote and made history as the first woman to run for president of the United States in 1870. The major themes in her story reflected on feminism, women suffrage and women leadership. Collins, in the book entitled, “When Everything Changed,” described the remarkable changes in the lives of women dating back from 1960. The book revolved around the themes of sex and gender roles, work, fashion, and politics that shaped the revolution of women.

Furthermore, the book offered much insight from the contributing interviews by women who recounted tales of gender inequality and male chauvinism. For example the 7% quota restriction of female enrolment to medical school in the 1960’s (Collins 23). The cataclysm of changes highlighted the contemporary political dynamics that was marked by the historic presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton.Foucault on his part engaged on an intellectual argument regarding the exercising of power over subjects (Dreyfus & Rabinow 2).

He theorized that power can be viewed as positive when used as a tool for governing subjects towards a set standard of goals. Furthermore, power can only be applicable to free subjects that are governed by relationship of power. Consequently, slavery cannot be viewed as a power relationship when the subject is bound in chains. The notion put forth by Foucault was that slaves exhibited free will to work for their masters so long as they were not bound. Consequently, they enjoyed a power relationship.

However one major critic of Foucault’s views is his claim that “freedom escapes everywhere power is exercised” (Dreyfus & Rabinow 4). This directly implied that there cannot be free exercise of freedom and power at concurrently!Pat Buchanan’s electoral campaign brochure highlighted key policy areas touching on gender equity and racial equality. One of the policies was the ‘One Nation Colour-blind policy’ that sought to end all ethnic and racial quotas (4President.Org). This was in recognition of the historical discriminative quotas that had persistently divided the populace along racial, class and ethnic lines.

The global women issues office recognizes the need to empower women around the world. The empowerment is aimed at enhancing women’s political, economical and social status for the sole aim of promoting peaceful cohesion, development and stability (United States Department of State). Consequently, the United States formulates foreign policies that are designed for such purposes. The main idea from this initiative relates to the shared gender inequalities facing the women around the world.Shirley Chisholm life story resonated with that that of Victoria Claflin in the sense that they both ran for election for president of the United States.

The major difference was that, Shirley was the first African American woman to declare her candidacy for such a position in 1972(National Public Radio). Moreover, she was the first African American congresswoman that represented the state of New York. The preceding events during her campaign led to her famous declaration as the ‘Unbought and Unbossed’ candidate. The statement ultimately inspired then title for her autobiography. Her life story was one dotted with the quest for social justice and fight for minority education.

Sheryl Sandberg in her talk entitled, ‘Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,’ explored the reasons as to why a small number of women attain top positions in their professions compared to men. Her presentation leaned more towards a feminist view that attempted to criticize men for their male chauvinism and dominant patriarchy system. She states that women should cease viewing themselves as less competent for a particular career than men. Moreover, they should not be denied the chance to pursue their desire for top profession.

However, her talk hinges on prejudice against the men when she argues that the world would be far much better with more women at the helm. The implication of such a statement is that men’s skills are inferior to women’s and thus negates the whole notion of gender equality! The hit television series ‘Political Animals’ is a cinematic depiction of powerful women that are engaged in the quest for political dominance with their male counterparts. The story is viewed as mirror depiction of the real life political struggles that women have to contend with in a highly sexist world.

Furthermore, the television series narrates the political upheavals of a female candidate who loses the race for presidency to a male politician. Consequently, the plot mirrors the real life challenges encountered by female politicians such as Victoria Claflin and Hilary Clinton.ReferencesDreyfus, Hubert, and Paul Rabinow. "MICHEL FOUCAULT “THE SUBJECT AND POWER” (1982)."www.rlwclarke.net. University of Chicago, 1 Jan. 1982. Web. 10 Sept. 2012.