What is power? If you ask most feminists, they’ll often point to political leaders – most of who are men.
And they are.
In fact, in the case of American Presidents, they’ve *all* been men.
But don’t close the book just yet, because this is a very short handed telling of ‘power’ – for even the President, although extremely powerful, is just *one* man, not ‘men’ as a class.
Joe Biden didn’t arrive from nowhere, he wasn’t installed by some shady patriarchal puppet master. The reality is way less exciting; he was elected by the voting public, and given a mandate.
The truth is that, in a democracy, voting is power, and women are the ones who exercise it most. They are the ones who turn up in droves, who swing tides and decide elections.
Women, not “MEN”.
Women have been doing more to decide elections than men for forty years, and suddenly knowing that, things make sense.
It explains why so many polices are written for women, and so many Government departments, initiatives and committees created in their favour.
No wonder America has four separate Government departments dedicated to Women’s Health, and none for men.
No wonder there’s no Men’s Bureau in the US Department of Labor, or Office on Violence Against Men, in the Department of Justice.
I must have missed ‘The Biden Agenda For Men’, where he spelled out exactly what he was going to do for them. Such a thing doesn’t exist.
So I ask again: what is power?
Perhaps we should become less obsessed with the genitals of our political leaders, and more interested in the policies they stand upon – for that tells a different story altogether.
Because politicians don’t care about us.
They only care about getting votes, and those who vote more, are women.
And good for women.
This is something men can learn from as men, if you want change, you vote for it.
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Images by Edoardo Cuoghi from Unsplash
Data U.S. Bureau of the Census Current Population Reports, https://tinyurl.com/ms233sfz