Many of us who have adopted from outside the U.S. have adopted girls. Although they are not allowed to hold the office of president or vice-president, they can be elected to any other public office in our country. That is the good news. But here is the bad news: women just aren’t getting into public office enough.

Here are some sad facts:

• The Supreme Court of the U.S. is made up of eight men and one woman.
• In the current U.S. congress, only 16% of the seats are held by women. Countries like Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uganda have a higher percentage of women in their government.
• As of February 21, 2008, of the 1,193 mayors of U.S. cities with populations over 30,000, 187, or 15.7%, were women.
• There are eight women governors leading the following States: Michigan, Kansas, Arizona, Washington, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Alaska.

Now we have Sarah Palin running alongside John McCain as vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party. She is not the first woman who has tried to become Vice-President. She was preceded by Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. Frances Sissy Farenthold had her name put into nomination for Vice-President at the Democratic National Convention in 1972, while the same year Toni Nathan was the Libertarian candidate for Vice President. Winona LaDuke (1996, 2000) was the running mate of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

Here is a list of women Presidential candidates in the U.S.: Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1872), Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (1884 and 1888), Margaret Chase Smith (1964), Shirley Anita Chisholm (1972), Patsy Takemoto Mink (1972), Ellen McCormack (1976, 1980), Sonia Johnson (1984), Patricia S. Schroeder (1988), Lenora Fulani (1988, 1992), Lenora Fulani (1988, 1992), Carol Moseley Braun (2004), Hillary Rodham Clinton (2008).

I'm not suggesting we start burning our bras again, but I’d like to stand on my soapbox for a minute and ask, “What the heck is going on?” Women actually outnumbered men in the population of the U.S. in 2002, 144 million to 138 million. There is no way that there are fewer qualified women to hold public office in this country.

Barbara Norrander, a professor of political science at the University of Arizona suggests the following reasons for the underrepresentation of women in local and national politics:

• Politics is something women haven't traditionally thought of as a career choice.
• Women generally enter politics a decade or later than men, because of child rearing.
• Women generally do not want to be away from home and their children for long periods, and society is critical of those that do.
• Women may be more reluctant to subject themselves and their families to the possibility of having things said that aren't true.
• Women often minimize the importance of their voice in the community.

But together with the less than inspiring statistics of women in politics, the fact is that we have two women in key positions in Washington today: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This is a good start – now let’s not stop the momentum.

As a young girl I remember my mother telling me that when I grew up women would hold a lot more public offices. How wrong she was. As parents of girls, we can do a lot to change the political demographics of this country by encouraging our daughters to see themselves as leaders, more than capable of holding their own in the political arena. As a woman, I'd like to see us hold at least 50% of all public offices, how about you?

Image Credits: flickr and flickr