In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes a variety of opinions from outside writers. On political and policy matters, we publish opinions from across the political spectrum.  Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are.  We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY's founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike.  Headlines would have us believe that we're witnessing a government takeover by snarling "Mama Grizzlies." But, within its coverage of the new political animal, the news media miss the forest for the trees. A truer danger lies in the obfuscation of harsher realities that are not as well represented by  as they are by the numbers 89 and 2012.  Eighty-nine is the number of nations that still surpass the U.S. in terms of women's representation in government. Some nations not known for human rights. Nations such as Rwanda, Uganda, Tajikistan, South Africa and Cuba. Given all its wealth and principle, our country still ranks an embarrassing 90th out of 186 worldwide.  For decades within the U.S., female participation in political and business leadership has consistently stagnated around 18%. And, despite the "Grizzly" hype, no one is anticipating any real improvement this November. In fact, the total number of female congressional representatives could well decline for the first time in three decades.  The underrepresentation sparks the perennial question: Why?  Most pundits suggest "self-selection." In other words, that women are too busy upholding both careers and the majority of household responsibilities, they are half as likely to think they can win an election and less likely to feel they can amass the average $3 million necessary to secure a seat in Congress.  Statistics offer a more fundamental explanation:  •Men make up 83% of Congress.  •Incumbents win more than 90% of the time.  So despite the fact that women are just as likely to win open seats as men and just as likely to be able to draw the financial means, they remain at a structural disadvantage from which they are unlikely to achieve equality within our lifetimes.  Indeed, the evolution of equality is rarely organic. Of the 25 nations that have realized a greater than 30% female participation in their governments, 90% required some form of temporary jump-start to secure permanent gains.  In March, India voted to require 30% female representation in government. In January, France voted to require 40% female board membership in business. Today, half of all national governments include some form of legally required minimums for women, while the U.S. remains on the sidelines of an international race to equality. Our absence offers a clear reminder that other countries — and many countries considered less advanced — deal more openly than Americans on issues of gender inequity.  Though our own government would never consider such mandates, we could surely tackle the structural impediments to equal representation. The gender representation gap — women make up only 17% of Congress, but 51% of the U.S. population — demands as much.  The same could be argued for business, where subconscious hiring preferences yield their own "incumbency" biases.  In 2012, we have an opportunity to improve. That year, congressional districts will be redrawn on the basis of the 2010 Census, thereby creating new political territory devoid of the incumbency bias that perpetuates gender inequities.  Indeed, denial of this problem is socially ingrained. Promising young women are encouraged to never mention gender inequities, but rather be good citizens and simply achieve without any reference to barriers even as they compromise that mandated achievement. Within upwardly mobile circles, the topic remains as taboo as mental health once was, and its avoidance as debilitating.  Still, as even Mao Zedong recognized: women hold up "half the sky." Studies have shown that national competitiveness increases with gender parity. Countries deploying more resources produce more and influence more. We are thus encouraged to realize our shared values of equality and opportunity in order to strengthen our economy, better legitimize our government, and best position ourselves internationally.  While 2012 lends us the occasion to improve, even this opportunity will not sufficiently secure what the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women described as "equality of result." It is not simply enough to remove barriers to participation in a country where women unaided have constituted only 2% of our government since 1789.  Only abiding efforts may coalesce a critical mass toward "critical minority." Accordingly, since chief of staff positions supply our candidate pools, we could encourage our congressional members to hire female chiefs of staff in greater numbers than the current 33%. Since candidates, on average, must be asked several times to run, we could each encourage a woman via non-partisan programs such as sheshouldrun.org and runningstartonline.org.  Since gender-oriented comments disproportionately disadvantage women, we could promote gender-neutral political environments via initiatives such as the recently deployed Name It Change It.  And since the challenges facing female candidates remain unique, we could support non-profit, non-partisan organizations such as the White House Project, which remains committed against — and cognizant of — the disadvantages of disparity.  But until we develop some national clarity on the sobering realities behind the headlines, we will remain not only politically and economically underserved, but denied our greater American potential.  Joelle Schmitz is a senior fellow at the Harvard University Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and a Fulbright scholar.  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
This nation trails the world in female representation in government. Instead of just hoping we'll catch up, it's time to do something about it.