Americans don't want a female president

Super Tuesday has come and gone, and it is clear that when it is time to hit the polls in November of this year, Americans will once again be choosing between two old white men.

Nikki Haley was the fifth Republican woman to pursue the presidency; however, as the Associated Press pointed out in an article on Haley, Republicans have never nominated a woman for the country's highest office.

On Wednesday, March 6, Nikki Haley officially suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, joining the list of female presidential hopefuls who have tried and failed.

Americans have spoken, and it seems that Republicans would much rather support a man, in this case Donald Trump, with all his issues than a woman.

Why can't women in America seem to break through this barrier? Plenty of other countries around the globe have long had female leaders.

Polls conducted about women in politics by the Economist and YouGov in February 2023 show that Republicans viewed Haley quite favourably, with 53% having a positive view of her and a mere 20% viewing her unfavourably.

Furthermore, the same poll found that 63% of Republicans thought it would be "a good thing for the country" if a Republican woman were elected president. So what happened?

Well, the Economist/YouGov polls showed that while Republicans had all these pleasant rosey thoughts about women in the White House when push came to shove, they just didn't believe "America is ready."

The poll found that only 48% of Republican men and 44% of Republican women thought the U.S. was ready to elect a woman to the nation's highest office.

Even worse, just 37% of Republicans said they "personally hoped that the U.S. has a woman president in their lifetime," meaning 63% of Republicans really don't have any interest in seeing a woman as president.

Karrin Vasby Anderson, a professor at Colorado State University who studies gender and political culture, spoke about the outcome of Super Tuesday to the Associated Press, saying, "The fact that voters in both parties have thrown their support to two elderly white men indicates that they believe that old white guys are still the most electable in a presidential race."

In an article in Time magazine on the subject, Charlotte Alter writes that the reason women can't run for president in the United States might be "because the American political system is more of a popularity contest than other countries, which creates particularly thorny challenges for women leaders."

Alter claims that it is easier for women to reach leadership roles in politics in countries where there are parliamentary systems in place in countries such as Germany, the U.K. or Finland.

In fact, according to data from the United Nations, women are heads of state or government in 26 countries, according to the United Nations. Even Mexico is on track to elect its first female president.

This could be because parliamentary systems offer more favourable circumstances for women politicians compared to the American system.

Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, told Time, "You don't vote for the Prime Minister; it happens within the institution. The party becomes the majority, and then the parties can do more structurally for women to attain leadership."

Time writer Charlotte Alter also speculates that it is easier for women to be elected into power in Europe or colonized nations because European monarchies have accustomed the people to female heads of state. Maybe the British felt fine with a female prime minister because a Queen had long ruled the territory.

In addition, how campaigns are run in the United States also puts women candidates at a disadvantage. An article published by the UVA Center for Politics highlights three factors that make both campaigns and elections more challenging for women than men in America.

First, there are the structural disadvantages. The Center for Politics highlighted a 2023 study by Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox, which found that "men are two-thirds more likely than women to have been encouraged to run by an elected official, party leader, or political activist to run for office. "

Other structural disadvantages faced by female politicians include less access to funding and difficulty reaching large donors. Furthermore, incumbency and retention rates also make it more difficult for female candidates to succeed.

According to The Center for Politics, men have traditionally held the incumbency advantage, and when incumbents run for office, it makes it far more difficult for new profiles, voices, and ideas to emerge.

The second challenge female candidates face in the United States is media coverage. A presidential campaign typically runs for eighteen months, and during that time, female candidates, in particular, face extremely harsh criticism and scrutiny.

The Center for Politics reports that research shows "that reporters emphasize women's traditional roles and focus more on their appearance. Media coverage of women candidates has also perpetuated stereotypes of women politicians as weak, indecisive, and emotional."

The third factor is that public opinion and stereotypes, which impact how voters evaluate candidates, negatively affect female candidates far more when compared to their male counterparts.

As Charlotte Alter points out in Time, "American politics has become infused with a culture of celebrity, which means voters often pick their candidates based on their personalities, making campaigns much more reliant on the dubious science of "likability" in a way that usually cuts against women."

At the moment, it seems nearly impossible for a woman to succeed at being voted as president in the United States. However, all the women who run and fail are preparing the territory for those who come after them. We can only hope that the political glass ceiling, with each attempt cracks a bit more, until one day, we see a Ms. President leading America.