By Jennie Sekanics
Correspondent
Although America has spent much time rejoicing over the end of its government shutdown, the question as to how an agreement was met still remains. As our federal government is composed of two binary parties, who could have paved the path toward the settlement? Ann McFeatters, columnist for Newsday, said it was the women.
During one of the darkest moments of the government shutdown, Susan Collins (D-Maine) took the senate floor and said, “I ask my Democratic and Republican colleagues to come together. We can do it. We can legislate responsibly and in good faith.” Other female representatives, Republican and Democratic alike, quickly seconded Collins’s notion. Despite the current governmental deadlock, the women leaders were the ones who used their determination and diligence to ensure that a compromise was issued.
Collins’s statement sparked a chain reaction that led to talks among opposing senators and inspired some of the male politicians to become more open to raising the debt ceiling and making only minor adjustments to Obamacare, TIME reported.
“The women are an incredibly positive force because we like each other,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said to TIME as the negotiations continued. “We work together well, and we look for common ground.”
US News pushed the issue further as they began to consider which gender works better in the governmental field. Although it has been previously stated that women may have the upper hand in the ability to understand relationships and maintain better communication skills, perhaps the problem truly rests in the unequal representation of the female gender within the governmental body, US News proposed. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) brushed upon this issue as he stated, “I am very proud that these women are stepping forward. Imagine what they could do if there were 50 of them.”
According to this theory, the most viable option would be to elect more women. US News also reports, however, that the real problem perhaps lies in the way female characteristics are regarded in the realm of solving political issues. Concepts such as compassion, peacemaking and placing compromise over individual victory are viewed as weak, despite the fact that their strength prevailed through the recent and successful ending of the government shutdown. Susan Milligan, writer for US News stated, “It’s not just the gender makeup we need to change in Washington. It’s the gender-based mindset.”
