Jobs for the boys? Chinese American women faring better in politics than men

World
Europe

By CGTN's The Point

Female politicians have had quite a rough ride of late.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s was bitterly defeated in last year's presidential race, former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff was impeached, as was her South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye, and then on Friday Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada resigned.

Some have argued that politics is not for women, claiming they are too emotional and unpredictable to make the cut as politicians.

But experts say their researches have proven the opposite to be true: in general female politicians are performing well in an arena which is still male-dominated.

“Now we have more women serving in the congress than in the past,” Lucy Gettman, an Adjunct Professor of Public Affairs study at the American University said.

“For example, in the US senate, we added two more Asian Pacific islander women (this year). I think we need to look broadly at women’s electoral experience and success, because there is a lot to celebrate,” she added.

Despite often being stereotyped in the media as servile housewives, Chinese American women are actually performing better in the political sphere than their male counterparts.

Li Jinzhao, a professor of Feminism Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University pointed out, “Cultures can change. For instance, in the United States, Chinese American women are performing better than Chinese American men in all different levels of political participation."

At state level, 40% of Chinese politicians who have run successfully at elections are women. This percentage is much higher than that of Chinese women leaders and officials.”