Let’s start with a clip from my favorite show, Parks and Recreation.

In this episode, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is getting attacked for not participating in a pie-making contest with the wife of her husband’s Congressional opponent. She’s a busy lady with a demanding job of her own and even though she bakes a mean pie, she’s got better things to do, but no one seems to understand that. First she gets attacked by the family values people for not supporting her husband, or for acting like she’s better than stay-at-home moms. Then she gets attacked by the women’s rights people for not taking a strong enough stand against the outdated tradition. No matter what she does, she can’t win. I think that’s representative of what so many women in government go through and it’s why I’m so glad that Hillary Clinton’s nomination could make it easier for more women to get into politics.

First, some numbers. Since the first session of the United States Congress in 1789, 46 women have served in the Senate and 278 women have served in the House of Representatives. Some of these women served in both houses, which leaves us with 313 individual women. To put that in perspective, 12,178 people total have served in the Senate and House. In a country that is generally about 50% female, only 2.6% of our elected representatives have been women. Even today, there are only 104 women in Congress, or 19.4%. WTF, America?

A recent episode of the NPR podcast Hidden Brain sought to determine why there’s been such a profound lack of women in government and they attributed it to what they call the “double bind.” This is the issue that Leslie Knope dealt with during Pie-gate. Basically, women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Hidden Brain interviewed Carol Moseley Braun, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 as the first female African-American Senator. She thought that racism would be a bigger hindrance to her election – after all, in 1992 America was 51% Female but only 13% Black – but she found that wasn’t the case. She told Hidden Brain, “I think in some regards the gender biases are more profound and more central to our culture than even the racial ones, and that to me was the surprise.” She recalled a cartoon in a newspaper that showed her campaign manager with his hand up her dress, implying that she was a puppet of her male campaign manager (though in light of the Donald Trump Access Hollywood video, there are certainly other implications). She won her race and proved that she was not just a puppet, but then there was another problem. In order to be an effective leader – which we hope our elected representatives are – you have to be strong and assertive, but these are not qualities that are very highly valued in women. When Moseley Braun spoke passionately on the floor of the Senate shortly after her election, “all her colleagues could hear was a shrill black woman.”

You might dismiss this as just one person’s experience, but a study by psychologists Madeline Heilman and Alice Eagly looked at gender and leadership and found that women who were noted to be successful were viewed as unlikable while women whose level of success was not specified were viewed as less competent than their male counterparts. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why there aren’t more women in politics. If a woman is running for the first time against a male opponent, she’s likely to be viewed as less well-qualified. If she does prove herself competent and manage to win, she’s liable to be seen as unlikable when it comes time to run for reelection. I don’t think many women would be surprised to find this out. We’re not dummies. We already know that our every move is going to be watched and dissected as soon as we step out in public. So why on earth would we want to open ourselves up to any more criticism than we have to? A Pew Research poll conducted in 2014 found that only 25% of people who reported having run for office were women, and honestly I’m surprised it’s even that high. Women running for office receive less support from political parties, fewer donations, and more discrimination. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t apply for a job if I knew up front that I would get little to no support through the application process and face prejudice and personal attacks even if I got the job.

To the women who have applied for the job anyway, I salute you. These women have pushed aside considerable obstacles and let the courage of their convictions carry them through tough times, humiliating times, and painful times. They have recognized that if our country is going to continue to be an example for the rest of the world, we can’t ignore the viewpoints of half of its citizens. Women can introduce new solutions to old problems; we can come up with ideas that would never occur to a male legislator who hasn’t walked in our shoes; and we can approach complicated diplomatic issues in sober, restrained ways. After all, we’ve been restraining ourselves all our lives. (This shouldn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway because apparently some people need to hear it: No woman has ever started a war because she was on her period, and that is never going to happen. Cramps suck, but even at their worst, we recognize they’re not as bad as war.)

Obviously we need more women in government, but so many women and girls have never had a role model to encourage them to get involved. Even Massachusetts, liberal stronghold and champion of underdogs, didn’t elect its first female Senator until 2012. So regardless of whether she wins on November 8 (Please, please, please vote!), Hillary Clinton’s nomination has already begun to change the game. I guess we won’t really know right away what effect she’s had, but for a new generation of girls, it won’t be a question whether a woman can run for President because a woman already has. They won’t wonder whether their dreams of being President are out of reach. They won’t have to worry that a female candidate could never be taken seriously. Things are different for these girls, and they’ll make it different for the girls following them. There’s still so much work to be done, so much progress left to be made, but in ways both big and small, the tides are beginning to turn. I was listening to a podcast this morning where a male host said something along the lines of, “In 4 years, the next man who runs…” before catching himself and adding, “Or woman.” It’s not a given anymore that candidates for President will be men. And that’s a great thing.

– Carley