In a new NFN Radio News podcast, a panel of knowledgeable, politically astute women discuss what has to happen in America to elect a woman as president of the United States.
In the 223 years since George Washington left the presidency in 1797, no woman has been elected to lead our nation, and although Hillary Clinton received more popular votes than Donald Trump in 2016, anti-Clinton votes in such states as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan carried Trump to the presidency via the electoral college.
The discussion, in commemoration of International Women's Day on March 8, included three Not Fake News contributing writers:
Susan Hutchinson, a retired medical technologist active in the Democratic Party in South Carolina;
Stacie Pearman, a social worker and South Carolina Democratic party activist;
Stacy Fitzgerald, of Virginia, a communications expert and political activist.
While there was general agreement that ingrained sexist attitudes remain within the electorate, especially among conservative, right wing voters -- including females, participants also agreed that a major step must be increasing the number of female candidates at the local, state and federal level.
That, said Stacy Fitzgerald, will "signal that the future of politics is female."
"We need to get in wherever we can fit in," said Pearman, whether it's the school board or vice president of the United States.
In 2020, the president will be one of three white septuagenarian men, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden – even though six female candidates were in the field when campaigning for 2020 Democratic presidential nomination began -- including four U.S. Senators…Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Kristen Gillibrand. But why could none succeed?
That question was explored in the discussion.
Will the selection of a female vice presidential candidate by the Democratic presidential nominee be a precursor to the election of a female president?
Pearman and Fitzgerald agreed that it would, but Hutchinson worried that adding a woman to the ticket might backfire on Democrats because both former Biden and Sanders are in their late 70s. Voters, she argued, will believe they are also electing a future president when casting that vote -- and, they may not be ready for a woman.
Pearman said she "demands" that the Democratic vice presidential nominee must be a young African American woman.
So, the questions for the panel were simple: Why can’t the U.S. seem to elect a woman as president of the United States? What factors seem to conspire against this? And what needs to change in American society to make it possible for a woman to be elected to the presidency?