A common piece of feminist narrative I see frequently distributed is this idea that a male dominated government exists in most modern countries to inhibit the lives of women. While I can believe that idea for unindustrialized and totalitarian nations, I cannot help but call bullshit on that idea for western democracies. I don't have a problem with the idea of women in power, as having more perspectives in a government is not a bad thing. But this idea of some bogeyman male political who exists only to spite women is demonstrably false.

A lot of western feminists seem to forget exactly how those men got into power in the first place. In a democratic society, it is the people, both men and women, who take an active role in the election of government officials. While in the case of the United States you could argue that a male dominated electoral college enables anti-woman politicians to continue gaining power, it is also important to take note that the popular vote decides who is in the running in the first place, and the electoral college only controls the presidential election and not regional or state politics. If anything, research has shown that women are more likely to participate in the electoral process to begin with. It could be argued that there is pro-female bias in the choosing of electoral candidates.

Furthermore, patriarchy theory and the idea of a male dominated government is reliant on a level of female solidarity that does not exist. For example, western feminists will cite abortion bans as an example of abuse of male power. This assumption relies on the idea that the majority of people in favor or abortion rights are women, and the majority opposed are men. Over a decade of research and data has shown that not only do men and women house similar views regarding abortion, but in multiple instances, pro life women have outnumbered pro life men.

Maybe, just maybe, if women didn't vote for supposedly anti-woman polices, then perhaps a male dominated government wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue. Now that's not to say it's entirely the fault of women, but to insinuate that western women are helpless victims of a patriarchal government is simply false.