We are currently in the 116th Congress, and we are still crunching numbers about worth. For the 115th Congress, the typical member of Congress was 12 times richer than the average American household. And while women made up 21 percent of the 115th Congress, they comprised only 13 percent of the top 10 percent of the wealthiest Congress members. That’s an 8-point gap. Break down the worth of the 10 percent wealthiest members and you’ll learn that men’s collective worth is 10 times that of women’s.
These findings bring two concerns into focus: one, the stark income inequality between members of Congress and the average American; and two, the stark income inequality between wealthy male and female members of Congress. Layer the 116th Congress’ 27-point gender gap onto these findings and now we’ve got a massive inequity problem on our hands—and that’s a potential recipe for economic disaster.
So how do we rectify for these conditions? The answer lies in an often-overlooked trigger: the gender equity gap.