Suppose you could choose the gender composition of the Congress, all 535 of ‘em, knowing nothing about the views or characteristics of the prospective members except one thing: their gender. How would you divide things up? You answer should take the form of:
X% females
Y% males
Where X+Y =100.
I’ll collect and report results. And yes, I’m aware that “convenience samples” like this are not representative.
Thanks,
JB
100% female
51% females
49% males
In the Senate and the house, each should be proportioned relative to their percentage in the population, which is about 51% female and 49% male. It would be more representative if the memberships also paralleled the age distribution of the country, starting with the minimum age for each body up to the retirement age of 67.
As a male, I’m gonna go with 90% female/10% male. The fact that our gender has been largely in charge for the last 10,000 years and our species still exists is something like a miracle.
75% women (unless they are like Ms. Bachmann from MN- then 0%)
25% men
50% females
50% males
60% F
40% M
Although I wouldn’t be averse to having 90% female for a few years, just to even our history out a bit.
48.4% M
51.6% F
Based on sex ratio of individuals in the United States aged 25+, via the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html) — 101 624 927 males vs. 108 453 592 females.
If Congress represents the American people, their “ideal” makeup should match the demographics of the American people.
100% females
0% males
The reason is that this would, we expect, only persist until the next election, and after a few election cycles the effect would completely wash out, meaning the different policies passed, which would not have been passed under male domination and which cannot survive male domination, would be reversed. Importantly, though, the policies which have not been tried only because of male domination that would be popular if put into practice would remain, and so such a perturbation — even if temporary — would allow us to permanently obtain a better equilibrium.
100% female
also… what she said: http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/11/28/hooray-justice-ginsburgs-all-woman-supreme-court/
60% female
40% male
As long as at least one of the females is Elizabeth Warren.
Female: 50% (+/- 10%)
Male: 49% (+/- 10%)
Other: 1% (+/- 10%)
I like Bearpaw’s recommendation, because intersex people should be represented as well.
ALL WOMEN.
Dear god, make it happen.
80 % women
20% men
Let’s see what happens when women are over-represented as men have been for hundreds of years. We will probably see much more compromise and action. At least there will be women directing discussion on women’s issues, rather than men determining the fate of how women control their own health/bodies
I would be OK with having Congress completely composed of those who have borne children. If some dude really wants to run, he can have a fetal implant.
I’d want 65 percent female. I could go higher but we already know that bad things happen when one gender is ludicrously underrepresented, so I’d rather not risk going too far in the other direction.
65% female
35% male