Tim Kaine: U.S. Behind Some Muslim Countries in Electing Women

Democrat vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine says the United States is far behind some Muslim countries in treating women equally because it is “below the global average” in the percentage of women in elected office.

Kaine said in a speech at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina Tuesday:

It took 144 years before women even got the right to vote in this country. What were we thinking when we said equality mattered, but no. One hundred and forty-four years. It took us that long to say in 1920, to say women get a right to vote. And now we’re 96 years later and we have just nominated a woman. We know we haven’t had a woman president.

Kaine complained that, today, only 19 percent of members of Congress are women.

“That’s the best job we’ve ever done,” he ridiculed the U.S., continuing that countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Rwanda have higher percentages of women in elected office.

Kaine cited data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which compiled the percentage of women in national parliaments. He said that, with only 19 percent, the U.S. ranks 75th in the world, “below the global average.”

“Iraq is 26 percent,” Kaine persisted. “Afghanistan is 28 percent. Number one [is] Rwanda — 64 percent. So for reasons, some of which I understand, some of which I don’t, we have made it hard. We have made it hard for women to be elected to the highest positions in our federal legislature and as president. We are about to change that. And that’s why I’m so excited!”