Why the United States Has Never Had a Female President
Tags: Politics, Feminism, Womens Rights, Women, President

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

It’s 2020 and the US has still never had a female president. Before we take a look at why let’s consider why it is important for the US to have a female president. First off, the President represents the people of the United States of America. If women make up 50.8 percent of the population (according to the US Census Bureau in July 2019), women should equally represent members in the country: meaning we should have the same number of female presidents as male presidents. Furthermore, the Equal Rights Amendment claims women are legally equal to men in the United States. So what’s the problem? In this paper, we will look at why the US has never even had one female leader and what it would mean for the country if we did.

To understand this, let’s take a closer look at the 2016 election. Hilary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, came closer than any female candidate to become our first female president. She won the popular vote, receiving more votes than Donald Trump, but lost the election due to the electoral college.

As a woman, I thought Hillary Clinton was going to win by a landslide since Donald Trump, even before the election, offended every race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, except white heterosexual males.

Donald Trump’s words “I grab them by the pussy” used to describe women he touched and kissed without permission aired live on televisions across the United States, three days before the third presidential debate of 2016. As a woman, I was shocked and horrified to think our future president may have committed sexual assault and more shockingly made no attempt to hide it.

Did the fear of having a female president factor into the 2016 presidential election? More men voted for Trump than Clinton. Trump’s main base of supporters is white men. Black and Hispanic men voted more for Clinton than Trump. Black men actually showed greater support for Hilary Clinton (the female candidate) in the 2016 election than Joe Biden in the 2020 election. So it seems most Black and Hispanic men were on board with having a female president or at least thought it was better than having Trump as president. One reason the US has not had a female president is that white men overwhelmingly voted for the Republican male Candidate, Trump. However, surprisingly, a significant number of white women voted for Trump in the 2016 election even after the release of the audiotape. Some articles from sources such as The Guardian even claim that “white women pushed him to victory”. Why did 52 percent, the majority of white women vote for Trump and did they push him to victory?

White Women’s Reasons for Voting for Trump:

“I was delighted to vote for Donald Trump because he’s a pro-life advocate”

“I do not agree with Trump’s language and behavior, and that is definitely not why I voted for him. But I am not worried that Trump’s misogynistic language and sexist behavior will have any interference with the reasons I want him in office. These are no more than actual actions of past presidents who were exactly the same way, just never recorded under a hot mic.”

“Hillary has been there so many years and what has she done? She lies… Trump has a few issues, but people change”, she said. “I figure it takes a liar or take a chance, and I figure take a chance.”

The first quote shows that religion is one of the major reasons why women voted for Trump. President Trump does not support a woman’s choice to have an abortion. The second woman makes excuses for men’s behavior as if it is normal for men to talk about sexually assaulting women. She acknowledges Trump is “sexist” and “misogynistic” but still votes for him because she believes his opinions of women will not affect his political agenda. However, opinions often result in actions and this woman has no intention of furthering women’s rights. The last woman votes for Trump because she likes his ‘honesty’. However, Trump continually lies, and even when he is honest, it is often offensive. Trump is honest about sexually assaulting women, claims “If Ivanka wasn’t [his] daughter, perhaps [he’d] date her,” and calling women dehumanizing names such as “pig”. These white women all provide responses; however, some of them do not seem like strong enough reasons, especially since these are women voters. The president is basically insulting these women and suggesting they are second class citizens and they still vote for him. Either these women are female misogynists, or there is an underlying reason white women voted for Trump. Some women claimed they were upset with Hilary Clinton for not leaving Bill Clinton when he had an affair. However, it is unclear if this significantly impacted their voting trends. Is there another reason, besides religion, honesty, the economy, etc. that influenced white women to vote for Trump that they might not publicly admit to in an interview?

Did racism unconsciously drive ‘white’ women to vote for Trump? Black and Hispanic women contrastingly voted for Clinton: 68 percent of Latino women voted for Clinton, and even more significantly 94 percent of black women voted for Clinton. Therefore, women of color overwhelmingly voted for Clinton, showing their readiness to accept a female president or their knowledge that Trump would not benefit them or further their rights. This shows that maybe the reason for an overwhelming white vote for Trump does not only involve misogyny but also racism. However, the suggestion that white women pushed Trump to victory is simply incorrect. Although white women significantly contributed to Trump’s election in 2016, no one should blame white women for Trump’s victory. Blaming these women might seem like a viable strategy to cope with the election results since women should know about gender inequality and want to do something about it; however, maybe some women and men don’t even know gender inequality is a problem. So let’s set the record straight.

In 2018, women of all races earned 82 cents to every 1 dollar earned by men of all races. Furthermore, today there is still a gender wage gap. This shows discrimination against women in the workforce. How can a woman represent the United States of America if she cannot even be paid the same amount as a man for doing the same job? Furthermore, other leadership roles in the US such as the United States House of Representatives and Congress have long had a history of excluding women. In the 2020 election, according to the Center for Women and Politics, it is expected that “Congress will inch up from 23.7 percent women to somewhere between 24.5 and 27 percent”. In a society where women are equal to men, there would be an expected representation of 50 percent females and 50 percent males. Why are women underrepresented in the US government and does affect a woman’s chance to become president?

It took women one hundred years to receive the right to vote since they first started campaigning. That is an incredibly long time just to convince men to let women have a say in politics. This reflects one reason we have not had a female president; despite a much more liberal way of thinking in 2020, there are still preluding sexist beliefs held by Americas today, making it much more difficult for women to gain political support. Women were not even considered citizens until the 1920s. This shows the women’s rights movement, as with many other movements, such as the civil rights movement has been slow in progress. Another reason women are underrepresented in government is that men have historically held those positions for a longer period of time so they have had more opportunity to run for government positions. Furthermore, a female leader is a major change for the US and as science shows, people have difficulty changing their habits, opinions, and perspectives. Harvard Medical School research suggests changing behavior “is a process, not an event” (2012). Therefore, we cannot expect to have a female president overnight. However, significant progress has been made since women started campaigning for their right to vote; this year, 2020, the United States proudly has its first-ever female vice president-elect, Kamala Harris. Have people’s opinions about women changed from the 2016 election to the 2020 election? Let’s take a closer look at the 2020 election to find out.

Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

2020 is the year of the first-ever female vice president-elect in US history, a significant achievement for women. However, the role of the president and vice president are substantially different. Kamala Harris possesses substantial power; however, she is still second in command to the president. Also, the people do not elect the vice president, the president chooses a vice president to be their running mate. Therefore, the people vote for the president of the United States together with the vice president, rather than having another election for the vice president. In a way, although a huge victory for women, the election still reflects the sentiment of the time; women continue to be second class citizens. However, did Trump lose some support from women in the 2020 election?

In the 2020 election “56% of women, compared to 48% of men, supported Joe Biden”. Trump lost some of his white female supporters perhaps due to the fact that this is the “first time since 1948 that the female unemployment rate has reached double digits” (National Women’s Law Center, 2020). This suggests that women had more riding on this election; their careers. However, not only did some white women change their vote, surprisingly, Trump also lost a substantial amount of white male voters. However, this probably is not because Trump is sexist and is likely due to his disastrous control of the coronavirus pandemic. Possibly unconsciously men and women trusted a male candidate (Joe Biden) more than a female candidate (Hilary Clinton). However, there are too many other variables in this equation to prove this point. However, it is interesting to think about. Pause and think about the question; are you more trusting of a male candidate?

According to the University of Virginia News, “94% of Democrats supported Biden and 93% of Republicans voted for Trump” in the 2020 election. This phenomenon known as party loyalty (most Democrats vote for the Democratic candidate and most Republicans vote for the Republican candidate) has been a deciding factor in recent elections. Since more women vote Democratic and more men vote Republican, there is a significant gender voting gap. Significantly, men and women have often chosen different presidents. This major polarization between the two political parties may be leading to polarized views and beliefs regarding women’s roles and rights. For example, many Republican candidates advocate “pro-life” and abortion restricting laws while Democratic candidates often support the polar opposite: making abortion legal and accessible to women. These polar opposite parties divide genders and in order to have a female president, the US must stop politicizing gender.

Also, to understand why the US has not had a female president, it is important to look at other countries that have had female leaders. Out of one hundred and ninety-three countries around the world, eighty countries have had or currently have female leaders. Europe, Asia, and Latin America are best known for some of their female leaders. Not surprisingly, countries where women have held leadership positions also have the lowest gender gaps. Iceland, which is ranked the highest for eleven consecutive years for gender equality, also is the country with the longest-serving female leader. According to US News and World Report “there are anecdotes from some countries, like in Iceland and in Nordic countries, where little boys ask their mothers, ‘Can I be president one day?’ because all they’ve known is a woman to be head of state”. In the same way, the United States has only had male presidents, other countries have had long-standing female leaders for generations.

Northern Europe has “the most female heads of government and state”. Furthermore, Latin American countries such as Argentina, Nicaragua, and Chile have had female presidents. Also, Asia has been a region that has shown strong female leadership. Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the first woman prime minister in 1960. Following her, women became prime ministers in India and Bangladesh. How did these women become leaders of their countries?

For South Asian countries, often female leaders gained power through dynastic party structures; “when husband or father dies or can no longer serve, a female family member takes up the mantle”. This both contrasts and parallels the US presidential system. Contrastingly, in previous elections, if the president dies, the first lady does not assume the presidential role. However, if Biden can no longer serve, Kamala Harris will step up and become our first female president.

However, for much of Europe and Latin America, the secret is in their government systems. They have quota systems that make political power much more accessible to women. Furthermore, in Latin American countries, women have a strong party system. In fact, according to Gwen K. Young, the director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Women’s Leadership Initiative, “most of the world, with the exception of Russia and the U.S. and a few others, has quotas”. The United States should consider changing its government system to allow women to have an equal chance as men to gain political power.

Even though countries with strong female leadership are often tied with greater equality, the two factors are separate. Just because a is in power this does not ensure she will be able to change the system. For instance, even though South Asia has had female leaders, according to UNICEF “South Asia has the highest rates of child marriage in the world.” Almost half of women are married before they are 18 years old and “Almost one in five girls (17%) are married before the age of 15”. Latin America also is known for high violence rates against women and strict abortion laws. Having a female US president does not guarantee we won’t continue to have gender inequality.

Even if the US did elect a female president, she probably would not be able to solve all of the sexist and misogynistic issues at the core of the country. How do we know this? Just look at our history. Former President Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States. However, his presidency did not solve the long-rooted racist issues that still plague American society today. Furthermore, since the US House of Representatives and Senate are male-dominated, a female president might not have as much success in passing equal rights initiatives. However, it is important not to underestimate the power a female president would have on the people of the United States. A female president would inspire millions of young girls in the US and around the world. Having a female president would create the opportunity for young girls to understand that being president is an in-reach option, not a far fetched dream.

A female president is in the future of the United States. After all, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, inspiring many more women to run for president of the US in 2020. Furthermore, we currently have a female vice president-elect, Kamala Harris. However, the US should not rely on women in power to make a difference for women’s rights if both Congress and the House of Representatives are male-dominated. Systematic changes must occur, but first women and men need to change their mindsets. Women’s rights need to stop being politicized. People in the US need to address that gender inequality is a fact. Then we can educate our children about what it means to have gender equality, not just having a female president but systematic equal rights and the same social opportunities regardless of gender. Other countries have had female leaders and America has the power to change their government system to fairly allow women an equal opportunity to participate in political positions. Even though change is a slow process, it looks like we are on track to having our first female president in the future. Just don’t forget to educate yourself and your family, advocate for women’s rights, and what the heck maybe even run for president if you’re a woman.