Yesterday the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting for the State of Massachusetts held it’s thirteenth and final public hearing on redistricting. As the Boston Herald mentioned in their coverage of the hearing (which took place at the Statehouse), a number of people stressed the importance of minority representation, including Rep. Stephen Lynch of South Boston. And they were right to point this out. Effective minority representation is essential to our democracy, for we must ensure that all voices are heard in our communities, not just those of a few classes of people.
What the Herald article didn’t mention was the testimony of a state representative who spoke shortly after Rep. Lynch. She argued that not only do we have to preserve minority representation, but we also need to protect underrepresented majorities - specifically women. Despite the fact that women make up a majority of the population, she said, Massachusetts only has one Congresswoman (Niki Tsongas of Lowell). The other nine are all men.
The problem is not unique to Massachusetts. Out of all 535 members of the current Congress, only 89 of them are women – 72 in the House of Representatives and 17 in the Senate.
I’m not saying that men can’t do a good job representing women’s interests - women have had some great male advocates in Congress like Ted Kennedy - nor am I saying that women are always better at representing the interests of women than men are (for instance, GOP Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann voted against equal pay for women last Congress). What I am saying is that women's interests need to be protected.
The bottom line is that women make up a majority of the population, a majority of college graduates, and - for the first time - a majority of the workforce. The well-being of our country is inextricably connected with the well-being of women. It's about time we started looking after the interests of the majority for the good of the country.
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