As someone who recently graduated with a degree in International Relations and spent the last three years studying in Washington, D.C., I have come to a somewhat uncomfortable conclusion:

Women today are more educated than ever before. Yet many of us remain politically illiterate.

Now, before you close this tab, hear me out.

We are earning university degrees at record rates. We are pursuing graduate education. We are building careers, launching businesses, and entering industries that were once inaccessible to the women who came before us.

We have become experts in self-improvement.

We know how to optimize our LinkedIn profiles. We know how to negotiate salaries. We know how to network. We know which internships are prestigious, which certifications are worth pursuing, and which career paths offer the highest return on investment.

But somewhere along the way, many of us missed an equally important education: understanding power.

And by power, I mean politics.

Perhaps I am biased. After all, I spent three years studying international relations in a city where politics is not simply discussed—it is the air people breathe.

Still, it genuinely surprises me how often I hear otherwise intelligent, ambitious women say some version of the same sentence:

“I don’t really care about politics.” Or worse: “I try to stay away from it.”

But why?

Politics certainly does not stay away from us.

Ask a room full of young women applying to business school, and you will receive detailed answers.

Ask the same room how legislation becomes law, how their country’s government functions, or how a proposed policy might affect their lives, and the confidence often disappears.

For example, a 2020 study published by Politico found that men, as a group, were more likely to follow politics closely. Seventy-six percent of male voters actively sought out news and information, compared to 69 percent of female voters.”

I am not going to sit here and say that reading this statement surprised me; it didn’t. But it made me think and reflect about the correlation between female interest and politics.

I am not saying this is because women are incapable of understanding politics. We aren’t. But politics has never been presented to us as something we need to understand. Instead, we are often taught that politics is messy, divisive, and best left to someone else.

I suppose that is why dinner conversational styles vary so greatly between men and women. While men clash over geopolitics, women tend to recalibrate the room’s energy. Often proving that the most profound conversations are the unspoken ones.

As women, we are often encouraged to focus on our own individual successes. Not on the systems that shape our opportunities.

The message toward 21st-century women is clear: be ambitious, work hard, get good grades, build a career, and everything else will take care of itself.

But this is not how the world works. Especially not in 2026.

No amount of personal achievement exempts you from political decisions.

You may not even realize it, but politics influences the cost of your education. It influences the housing and job market you hope to enter. It influences workplace protections, healthcare access, taxes, childcare, immigration policies, and economic opportunities.

It determines far more of our lives than we realize.

The historic 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, in 2022, where the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, has affected millions of women throughout the United States. An estimated 25 million women of childbearing age reside in states with immediate abortion bans and severe restrictions.

The irony is that many women can tell you the entire history of a celebrity feud but cannot name their elected representative.

We spend hours researching Korean skincare, trendy destination spots, and job opportunities, yet we make no time to understand the institutions that govern our daily lives.

Again, this is not a criticism of women. This article is a mere criticism of a culture that has historically encouraged women to consume information while actively discouraging them from engaging with power.

For years, empowerment has been marketed to women as a personal project. Buy the course. Build the brand. Perfect the morning routine. Become the best version of yourself.

While there is nothing wrong with self-improvement, it has increasingly replaced civic engagement. We have replaced ‘personal development’ with ‘empowerment’.

The two are not the same thing. A woman can have an impressive résumé and still know very little about the forces shaping her future.

She can be highly accomplished and politically disengaged. She can be educated without being politically literate.

That distinction matters.

Because history has shown that rights are not permanent. Opportunities are not guaranteed. Progress is not inevitable.

Every freedom women enjoy today exists because previous generations understood the importance of political participation.

They organized. They advocated. They paid attention.

They understood that power matters.

Somewhere along the way, many of us inherited the benefits of those efforts without inheriting the same sense of responsibility.

Political literacy does not mean spending every waking hour reading policy papers.

It does not require becoming a political commentator or an activist. It simply means understanding the systems that affect your life.

Knowing who makes decisions. Knowing how those decisions are made. Knowing enough to recognize when someone is trying to manipulate you.

Most importantly, it means recognizing that politics is not a niche interest. It is not a hobby for people who enjoy arguing online. It is one of the most important forces shaping our future.

We live in an era when young women are extraordinarily educated. The question is whether we are educating ourselves about the right things. Because a generation of accomplished women that does not understand power will always be at a disadvantage compared to those who do.

The Australian government recently made international headlines for officially becoming the first country in the world to implement a formal law that will bar adolescents from using social media. 

Time and time again, giant tech conglomerates such as Meta, Snapchat, Tik Tok, X, Youtube and more have taken advantage of the adolescent user through addictive algorithmic models that aim to exploit the psychology of the young mind to spend more time on these platforms, which has been shown to cause mental health problems and contribute to unrealistic body standards. 

Now, Australia has taken action to protect its youth. 

Starting from Dec. 10, 2025, any minor under the age of 16 in Australia will be prohibited from keeping and/or creating social media accounts on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, X and Facebook. In the coming days, it is expected that these corporations will take reasonable steps to prevent anyone under the age to garner access to such accounts. Failure to do so will result in a $49.5 million (AUD) fine.  

Meta has already started removing users between the ages of 13 to 15 years old, notifying them that “their accounts would start being shut down from 4 December.”  

On Dec. 3, Anika Wells, the current minister for communications under the Albanese government, said in a public press conference that,“our world-leading laws will give kids a three-year reprieve from predatory algorithms, toxic popularity meters and harmful content manipulating Australian children.”   

The law that was passed in November 2024 by the Australian parliament sparked mass controversy and opposition from academics, civil society organizations and international experts who have described the bill “as ineffective at best and a violation of children’s human rights at worst.” It was passed despite criticism from conglomerate tech corporations that have argued that the legislation was rushed and that there are still many questions the Australian parliament has yet to address. 

However, despite such critiques by social media users and tech corporations, people are now being forced to comply with the Australian parliament and new legislature that has been passed. 

While the actions of the Australian government are commendable in terms of passing legislation around a complex ecosystem of algorithms and adolescent behavior, real change will come from demanding giant tech conglomerates change their internal policies, altering models and algorithms that are exploiting children online by making them more tempted to stay addicted to the apps. 

However, Australia’s legislative action reduces harm given the current realities of how social media functions, and perhaps the U.S. should learn something here as well. 

In a time of deep division and polarization, protecting children online often has support from US voters of different political affiliations, races, genders and socioeconomic classes.

Earlier this month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee convened its hearing that spanned 19 bills to discuss “age verification, data privacy, parental controls, AI and platform transparency, screen time, scientific research, digital literacy, and more.” During the hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers discussed taking the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) into consideration. This act was introduced in the House in 2021 and aimed to require social media platforms to protect the data of minor children, but it has been stalled in Congress since July 2024. 

There was also discussion around updating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law that was enacted in 1998 to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13 and has not been updated by policymakers and legislators since. 

This is where the United States can learn from Australia. While the United States continues to debate child safety, Australia has taken action, and soon a domino effect may be seen taking place in other countries as well. For example, the Washington Post notes that in “Malaysia and Indonesia, … policymakers debate whether the model is worth emulating.”  

Children are a vulnerable group in our society, and our collective societal decisions affect 21st century children, which is why it is so incredibly important to protect our children. 

Many critics of this policy have argued that the age verification process could require parents and underage users to upload sensitive biometric data, putting users’ personal information at risk as they verify their age. It could also isolate and exclude individuals from forming effective online connections. 

The Australian Human Rights Commission writes that this policy “may potentially require all Australians to provide social media companies with sensitive identity information, which poses a risk to our privacy rights in light of recent examples of data breaches and personal information being stolen.” 

However, many of these giant tech corporations have proven how they have failed to protect children’s safety online, which has forced the Australian government to take such drastic measures.

Meta has played a prominent role in such lawsuits. In a case filed against Meta in November 2025, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, former head of safety, testified that when she joined Meta in 2020, she was shocked to learn that the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that reportedly engaged in “trafficking of humans for sex.”  

More than 1,800 plaintiffs, including children, parents, school districts and attorneys general, have come together to argue that parent companies behind major social media apps are pursuing strategies that are destroying children’s mental and physical health and should not go unnoticed. 

While simply placing an age restriction on social media apps likely will not fully resolve the issues, it is a step in the right direction. Protecting children’s safety online is fundamental, and it is imperative that we work together to do so. Australia has already taken a step in a positive direction. Now, it is time for the rest of the world to follow.

Recently, the Democratic Party rode a rare wave of optimism. For the first time in nearly a year, it finally felt like progress was on Democrats’ side. 

According to a polling conducted earlier this month by NBC News, “one year before the 2026 midterm elections, Democrats lead Republicans in the fight for Congress by eight points, 50%-42%.” The largest lead since the 2018 congressional elections. 

Last week, the blue party celebrated momentous victories throughout key states. In Virginia, the Democratic candidate, Abigail Spanberger, won the governor’s race by making history as the state’s first female governor. Similarly, in the Garden State of New Jersey, Mike Sherrill also won the governorship. 

In Georgia, Democrats notably flipped two Republican-held seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission; yes, Democrats have been on a high.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer excitedly claimed, “Last night was a shellshacking for all Republicans, and Donald Trump. Last night was clear, unmistakable, as a repudiation of Trump and a vindication of what Democrats have been fighting for over the last several months.” 

For the past 43 days, Democrats have refused to budge on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), insisting that any funding bill to reopen the government must include an extension of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits. 

Everything was working in the Dems’ favor–until it wasn’t. 

On Sunday night, the Senate took its first steps to end what is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. With that, a group of eight moderate Democratic senators broke ranks on Sunday to advance legislation to reopen the government, sparking an immediate civil war within the Democratic coalition. 

However, now that the federal government is reopening after seven long weeks, instead of focusing on the present, the Democrats’ high-horse elitism has led them to attack leaders in their own party. 

“With respect to the senators…they are going to have to explain themselves,” Said house  minority leader Hakeem Jefferies early Monday morning in response to the 60-40 vote which paved the way for the spending agreement to begin making its way through Congress. 

Democrats were never going to win this uphill battle on healthcare reform — at least not now.  That was impossible from the get-go. Today, Democratic power is severely constrained, given that the Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress (both the House and the Senate).

Vinay Menon, an entertainment columnist for the Toronto Star, writes, “This week’s bickering within the Democratic party is counterproductive — and a free gift to Trump. The Dems don’t need to pick a progressive or centrist side. They can be both.” 

While advocating for affordable and adequate healthcare reform is so incredibly important, the undeniable reality is that Democrats never had any leeway to find a common ground under the current state of the Republican party. 

Claiming that they are the party fighting for the everyday American, Democrats’ constant refusal to compromise hurt the very people they claim to represent: federal workers, low-income families and urban communities that depend on government services. Let’s call it what it is: political self-righteousness. 

According to the American Federation of Government Employees, “about 1.4 million federal workers are going unpaid-with roughly half being furloughed and the rest required to work. Not to mention, this previous shutdown severely disrupted food assistance programs, such as SNAP.

So while the leftist political elites of Washington continue to debate policy to make themselves look better, low-income, marginalized families are wondering every day how they are going to feed their families. 

Freya Gillette, a 37-year-old single mother from Texas, told Time Magazine that, “When her SNAP benefits were cut this month, she had to divide what little money she had among food and bills.” 

It is stories like that that should bring the democrats into shame. Arguably, Democrats are just as bad as Republicans — if not worse. Instead of being a party that focuses on governing, they end up fighting each other through chaos and weakness.

Let’s be honest for a second: Democrats were never going to win the ACA battle. It does not matter how long the government shutdown lasted; it was never going to happen under the 119th Congress. 

Yes, Democrats should continue to advocate for affordable healthcare access for every American. However, this shutdown could have been completely avoidable. With Trump and his allies controlling the Hill, Democrats should have known better than this. 

The eight  moderate Democrats didn’t ‘cave’ to Republican pressure; they saw the adverse effects of the government shutdown beginning to affect their own constituents, such as delayed air travel and missed paychecks, while also understanding that many Americans are growing increasingly fed up with government dysfunction. 

For the party built on victimization, Democrats have found a far more effective method: themselves. Democrats have successfully turned infighting into an art. Instead of unity, they have chosen self-righteousness. Ironic, right? A party so consumed with proving its purity has forgotten how to govern. In other words, it’s time Democrats touch some grass.

Gender inequality continues to persist throughout many nation-states around the world. Today Afghanistan is ranked as one of the most oppressive nations for women. For the last four decades, the civilians of Afghanistan have experienced anarchy, instability and war. 

Nearly 20 years later, in 2021, the Taliban, an extremist terrorist group, returned and seized power. Almost two years later, young Afghan girls and women have been relentlessly trying to protest for equality and justice in education, employment, marriage and fundamental human rights.

Women play a fundamental role in society and lift economies. While the Taliban has claimed that the ban on female education is tentative, history has proven it more definitive. Diplomats, world leaders and the U.N. are fearful about the future of Afghanistan under the Pashtun Taliban regime. 

Many refugee councils have advised urgency for an uncertain future of humanitarian work in Afghanistan without the critical role of women. Under the Taliban, women have been banned from many types of employment, including working for national and international aid organizations. According to the head of a major aid agency, "Internal debates and extreme decrees have paralyzed our work" (Egeland 2023).

With the enactment of the new ban in December 2022, malnutrition and death rates have also skyrocketed because the harsh realities of discarding women from an already retrogressive society are starting to show. Without female workers, aid agencies, which have been critical for meeting Afghanistan's needs for food, shelter and sanitation, cannot function, depriving Afghani citizens of badly needed nutrition.  

Today, Afghanistan is the only state that has banned female education. Even before the Taliban’s seizure of power, Afghanistan was struggling to keep girls in school. According to Giving Compass, "In 2017, there were nearly seven girls for every 10 boys enrolled in primary school, dropping to six girls for every 10 boys enrolled in secondary school." Globally, Afghanistan's overall female literacy rate is lower than the global average of 53%.  

As instability continues to rise in Afghanistan, many fear the inevitable. Jan Englewood, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said, "All promises were made, and we were misled. What I would say is that the Taliban decrees on female workers, on education for girls, is so wrong for Afghanistan, for the population, for the future, for the economy."  

Over the past few decades, Afghan women have made tremendous strides that have shattered glass ceilings on misogynistic views that have traditionally silenced women. However, women still fall behind men in various sectors, both professionally and personally. According to Giving Compass, "Women in Afghanistan are outnumbered five to one by men in sectors that require higher skills, according to 2021 data."   

Without women contributing to society, the overall economy is about to take a turn for the worse. Peace, stability and a healthy economy are unlikely to be possible without the presence and participation of girls and women in all aspects of life. 

According to an analysis from UNICEF, Afghanistan is expected to lose approximately 2.5 percent of its GDP because of this decision. For many single women who are the main providers for their children, being forbidden from entering parks, gyms, corporate settings, mosques, or even religious ceremonies makes it hard to keep a roof over their heads because they can no longer earn an income.

Every day, Afghan women are expected to enact regressive traditions that have led to educational disruptions, discrimination, abuse, and gender violence.  Traditionally, promising young Afghan girls are forced into child marriage for being an economic burden on their families. According to Giving Compass, more than “46.1% of women aged 15-49 said they had been subject to physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner within the previous year."

Every year, Afghan women are continuously discouraged from academia. Lack of adequate instruction prevents girls from gaining knowledge, achieving their potential and overall representation. On the contrary, it places them at a high risk of violence, abuse, child marriage and pregnancy. For 24,000 women living in rural areas, "childbirth can, in effect, be a death sentence" according to Dr. Natalia Kanem, head of the UN Population Fund. 

Creating a more backward society by stripping women of fundamental rights by ordering them to wear burkas under the sharia law will also continue to worsen women’s rights. Many neighboring Muslim-majority countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Taliban, claiming that the leadership should consider the country's economic state in their recent rulings. Two direct aids to the Taliban have claimed that ministers would want women to resume operations at NGOs, but overall this decision relies on Kandahar leadership.  

As one of the worst countries in the world for gender equality, the situation is worsening for girls and women under Taliban rule. Especially because Afghanistan is a developing country, forbidding women from becoming independent and self-sufficient will cause more harm to society through the collapse of humanitarian aid agencies that relied on female workers. In the long run, keeping girls from education will also hurt Afghanistan’s economy. Those of us who are fortunate to reside in the United States can help by spreading the word about the importance of women’s rights in Afghanistan, welcoming any refugees in our neighborhoods or campus or donating to a reputable aid organization.