Ruth Mandel gave an overview of women’s political status to a crowd of nearly 200 people in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union Monday night.

Entitled “Incrementalism vs. the Ketchup Bottle: Women’s Progress in Politics,” her speech showed how change in women’s political status does not necessarily happen gradually or in a linear fashion and is not separate from other entities.

“There have been several inextricably interrelated movements” which have helped to shape political change, Mandel said.

She named the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Movement, Women’s Movement and the Gay/Lesbian Movement as key contributors to changes since the 18th century.

“It is clear that women’s political empowerment is inseparable from larger ideas of inclusion,” Mandel said.

She structured her speech by pointing out several situations when a dramatic “tipping point” was reached, each happening 72 years apart.

Beginning in 1776, she chose Abigail Adams’ letter to her husband John and the rest of the Continental Congress.

Her famous statement, “Remember the ladies,” helped to initiate change, although it was met with ridicule.

Later events described included the first organized Women’s Rights convention in 1848, when women officially requested suffrage, and when they were finally granted the right in 1920.

Another 72 years later, she acknowledged the naming of 1992 as the “Year of the Woman,” when women made unprecedented gains in governmental positions and male candidates paid more attention than ever to women voters.

However, she was hesitant to place 1992 among the most important years in the history of women and politics.

“Nothing has really tipped yet,” Mandel said. “Basically, men have been tinkering with rhetoric in order to gain women’s acquiescence to keeping them in power.”

Mandel would not speculate as to when the next dramatic change would come, but she said it will not come from women alone.

“We can conclude through looking at history that, in general, democratic societies are better for more people,” she said. “Women are only one element in this vast tipping point that is coming.”