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How Women Can Effectively Exercise Their Political Voice
By
Ronald M. Caplan, M.D. |
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Senior women in our society have now become a potent political and economic force. The most obvious reason for this development is the rapidly increasing numbers of mature women in our society. Women are healthier now in their later years than they have ever been. They are more vigorous. For generations now, in large numbers, women have entered every aspect of the work force from the most menial positions to the professions and the executive suite. Large numbers of women are in ownership positions of everything from small businesses, companies, and assets including stocks, bones and real estate to sports teams and some of the largest corporations in America. Interestingly enough, only a few of the most major corporations in America have women as their chief executive officers or chief financial officers even today, but this is rapidly changing.
Women enjoy the demographic power of sheer numbers, and economic power. With increasing levels of sophistication in the complexities of how society, not to mention bureaucracy, works, women have found their political voice. Women have become a significant force in the major political parties. Women are senators and members of the House of Representatives. They are major figures in the structure of the political parties in the Unites States. However, no woman has yet achieved the office of Vice President or President. Of course, a woman has been on a major national ticket.
Although women today in our society make up an indispensable part of the armed forces, they have not, by and large, managed to rise to the top levels of the military in strategic decision making. Because of the vital role that national defense and security performs, and its interaction with geopolitics, a full role for women in the military impacts upon the political power of women. The National Security Adviser, a woman, has become the Secretary of State of the United States. She is the second woman to hold that powerful position.
Women in our society today tend to live longer than men. Inheritance laws tend to allow for the free transfer of assets between the spouses when one partner dies, without taxation. These two facts alone are responsible for the substantial hold of assets by senior women on our society. Economic power gives great leverage in the creation of political power. More importantly and ominously, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, economic power without political power is an invitation for disaster. If you put a hundred dollar bill in the street without guarding it, don’t expect it to be there when you come back.
It is not only important for women to exercise political power, but it is essential for their self interest and for the larger interest of society. After all, senior women are now a large and vital segment of our society. Furthermore, they have the wisdom and knowledge necessary to make the hard decisions in a calm and reasoned manner that will shape our society going into the future. This will be their true legacy to their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Author's Bio
Ronald Caplan, M.D., is an Obstetrician Gynecologist and medical author who has spent the greater part of his life studying and treating the medical conditions that impact humanity, and their relation to the evolving society in which we all live. Dr. Caplan has been a faculty member at two major Universities: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has now been appointed Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. Caplan is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada).
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