The Scandies and their eye candies

After having read Maureen Dowd's most recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, I've had about all the vacuity and vilifying I can take this morning. In order to depress myself further, I decided to look up the (abysmal) rates of women in politics worldwide.

The embedded photo features the Riksdag building, which is the seat of the Parliament of Sweden. The very same parliament that has the highest representation of women in politics at a percentage of 47.3. The remaining Nordic countries average 37.6%. I doubt they entertain many discussions on the pitch of a female parliamentary member's laugh, whether she's had cheek implants (because youthfulness is next to Godliness), or the merits of her pantsuits. Probably not for a region with universal health care, or for a region that serves as a major destination for refugees based on their resident population, or for a region with one of the lowest poverty rates in the world. You know, the stuff that actually matters. Plus, they know how to design stuff really really well.

This is the reason why for years I've been threatening everyone (well, anyone who will listen) of my pending move to Scandinavia (or Rwanda with a 45.3% representation or Argentina with 36.8%). This is "change" and "hope" to believe in.

What is neither change or very hopeful are the following rates of women in politics for the G8 countries: Canada: 20.8% , France: 13.9%, Germany: 31.8%, Italy: 17.3%, Japan: 9.4%, Russia: 9.8%, United Kingdom: 19.7%, United States: 16.3%
source: www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/map-world-womenpolitics