The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission said Thursday she was “embarrassed” by the number of women elected to office in the United States and faulted the role of contributions in politics.
“You know, I’m a little embarrassed almost, because in the United States, clearly … money does have an outsized influence in politics,” Ann Ravel said at a conference in Mexico City,
The problem, Ravel explained, is that more men contribute to candidates than women, and that they discriminate against female candidates.
“Women tend not to be in the higher echelons of the economy. There are very few women CEOs in the United States, and women have much less access to wealthy donors. Eleven out of the top 100 wealthiest donors in the United States are women. Eighty percent of the outside groups — the super [political action committees] — are run by men, and they do not contribute to women’s candidacies.
“Its impact on women’s representation at all levels of government is really huge,” Ravel continued. “Women in the U.S. are 55 percent of the voters, and yet we have only 20 percent women in the Senate.”
Her remarks came as part of a panel called “Addressing the Gender Funding Gap” at a conference sponsored by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
This year, she held a panel at the FEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to talk about women’s representation in politics. One of the panelists at that event suggested that the U.S. “completely dismantle [its] economic system” in order to solve the problem, while others suggested outlawing candidates’ right to raise or spend money.
During her appearance in Mexico, Ravel reiterated the idea that campaign finance plays a problematic role in U.S. elections, though she stopped short of laying out solutions. “The issue, while there are other issues about why women don’t run to begin with, the fact that they have to fundraise, and the difficulty of fundraising, has shown and proven to be one of the major reasons that there is so little representation of women in the United States.”
This year, Ravel told the New York Times that she viewed the FEC as “dysfunctional” because it frequently ties on votes regarding enforcement matters. The six-member commission is mandated to have no more than half of its members appointed from one political party, which means it is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Because of her frustration, Ravel said she was going to concentrate “on getting information out” rather that continuing attempts on the commission “to take action against major violations.”
In addition to criticizing the number of men elected to political office, Ravel has also voiced support for lowering campaign spending limits, regulating more of the paid political content placed on the Internet, and changing the law to allow for one-party rule on the FEC.
