A Piece of a Woman's Mind

There has never been a female President of the United States since our founding on July 4, 1776. I have personally been waiting for a female President since Hillary Clinton ran against Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries in 2008. I believe she was the more qualified candidate, but I watched with distaste, dismay and fury as all the male pundits and politicians unified to demean and marginalize her because she was a female. Their pronounced misogyny was successful. Although I was pleased when Obama won the Presidency and broke a new barrier by becoming the first Black US President, I have always believed that many people voted for him in the primaries because they just couldn’t imagine or accept a female as the President.

I was overjoyed when Hillary won the Democratic Party’s nomination as their Presidential candidate in 2016. History shows that she won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College, an outdated institution that continues to defeat and frustrate the will of the American people in Presidential elections. Now I am hopeful that Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, will become the first female President.

The United States has a dismal record for choosing females to hold any federal office. Men made us stand in line a long time before we were allowed to vote or serve and guide our country at the federal level. Here is a short list about how long women have had to stand in line. In each case I computed the number of years from 1789 which is the year in which the country started operating under the Constitution.

First Woman to hold Federal Office/       Jeanette Rankin, 128 years First House Representative

Women’s Right to Vote (Federal)            Nineteenth Amendment, 131 years

First Woman Senator                             Rebecca Felton (D-GA), 133 years (appointed for 24 hours)

First Woman Senator Elected                 Hattie Caraway (D-AR), 143 years

First Woman Cabinet Member                Frances Perkins, 144 years

First Woman Supreme Court Justice     Sandra Day O’Connor, 192 years

First Woman Speaker of the House        Nancy Pelosi, 218 years

First Woman Vice President                   Kamala Harris, 232 years

When viewing this stunning list, we must come to the unavoidable conclusion that at the very least U.S. men who were always in power politically and economically disrespected, totally underestimated and pigeonholed women. But in addition there had to be a continuous undercurrent of fear and misogyny in the mix. Men couldn’t burn all women at the stake, but they could delay their participation in government as long as possible. This list says that men (and women schooled by men after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment) truly believed that there were no qualified female candidates for any federal office. That is absurd and totally untrue.

I personally believe that Kamala Harris is the more qualified of the two candidates running for President in 2024. I sincerely hope that the majority of Americans and the Electoral College electors come to the same conclusion. If my wish comes true and Kamala takes the oath of office in 2025, women will have been waiting in line for 236 years, a very loooooooong time.