Unbought and Unbossed

by Shirley Chisholm

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 417 are white males.

smaller. Women are a majority of the population, but they are treated like a minority group. The prejudice against them is so widespread that, paradoxically, most persons do not yet realize it exists. Indeed, most women do not realize it.

Congress calls it the seniority system. I call it the senility system.