The year 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first woman Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Year 1966 Indira Gandhi became the first woman Prime Minister of India. Year 1969 Golda Meir became Israel's first female Prime Minister. Year 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female Prime Minister. Year 1988 Benazir Bhutto became the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The list of countries that have placed women in the most powerful positions in the country is long. Over 60 countries have elected a woman President or Prime Minister in the last 60 years. Surprisingly, America, the most powerful democratic country in the world, has not been able to do this till date.
Elections are on November 5 in America. This is only the second time in the 231-year history of American democracy that a woman has been a presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton was the first presidential candidate in 2016, while Kamala Harris is of Indian origin in this election.
But why is it that no woman has been president in America's 23-decade long political history? The story tells the stories of women who were sometimes imprisoned for their dream of becoming president and sometimes asked if they could press the nuclear button…
Case-1
There was a desire to become the President, there was talk of leaving the country
American woman leader Victoria Clafin Woodhall was the first person to express her right to run for president. Woodhall was born in 1838 into a family that traveled from town to town claiming to sell magic potions. However, those drugs contained nothing but alcohol.
Woodhall was only 34 years old, while the voting age in America is 35. She did not contest the election, but leaders who hated Woodhall had her arrested. He was accused of spreading obscenity.
Case-2
Inherited politics from the husband, Russia called the devil
Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to declare her candidacy for the presidency. Margaret inherited politics from her husband Clyde Smith. Clyde was a major leader of the Republican Party. He died in 1940.
In 1964, he put his name forward as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. This was the first time a female leader of the Republican Party had contested for the position.
Margaret Chase Smith said in a speech-
Some people feel that women should not aspire to reach the White House. This is a man's world. It should be kept that way.
Margaret Chase Smith is campaigning for the nomination.
On the day Margaret announced her intention to run, a Washington Post reporter declared her campaign non-serious. Margaret did not have enough money to compete with other Republican candidates.
During the campaign he said that-
Women are human too. Hope people will vote for me.
However, he lost the candidature election. Margaret was a famous leader of her time. He was known in the Soviet Union for his sharp criticism of leftism. Nikita Khrushchev, Supreme Leader of the Soviet Union, said, “Margaret is the devil in female form.”
Case-3
Being female led to greater punishment than being black
Shirley Chisholm was the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He was elected as MP from New York in 1968. She thus became the first black woman in the country to achieve this feat.
Far from being president, it took 227 years for a woman to become vice president
This was in 1984. A women's organization persuaded Democratic presidential candidate Mondale to nominate a woman as his vice presidential running mate. Mondale agreed and Jerry Ferraro was chosen for the position.
Everyone thought that the time would soon come when a female presidential candidate would be elected, but these hopes were dashed when the American people elected Ronald Reagan of the Republican Party instead of Mondale.
According to American journalist Alan Malcolm, the kinds of questions Ferraro was asked during the election campaign were enough to prove that America was not ready to empower women.
During a debate at the same time, Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate George Bush taunted Ferraro and said – Miss Ferraro, may I explain to you the difference between the embassies of Iran and Lebanon.
Ferraro was angered by Bush's statement and alleged that she was told so because she was a woman.
After this election, confidence in women among the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties decreased. It took 227 years for a woman to become vice president in America. Indian-origin Kamala Harris became the first woman to hold the post in the 2020 election.
Why hasn't America got a Madam President yet?
According to American experts, there are 3 reasons why a woman has not become president so far…
1. Social cause: Husband publishes letter in newspaper to keep divorced wife away from politics
According to American political expert Irene Natividad, like in other countries of the world, women in America have got many basic rights compared to men. For example, in pre-independence American schools, boys were taught both reading and writing, but girls were not taught to write.
For this reason women could read, but could not write. Women used to write “X” in place of their name as a signature. Women also had no right to property. Due to these reasons she started to lag behind socially. It took her time to compete with men in every field.
According to the survey agency Gallup, in 1937 64% believed that women were unfit for the presidency. He said that politics is a man's world and should be kept as such. According to the agency, more than 5% of voters still feel the same way about women.
Films began to be made in America, showing women's work of running the house, loving their husbands and giving birth to children. This was the period of 1950s when women's freedom was again taken away in America.
Psychologists of that time started blaming all the ills of society on working women. This not only affected the lives of working women, but also affected women participating in American electoral politics.
In 1958, an MP named Koya Knutson decided to contest a by-election. Opponents tracked down Knutson's ex-husband, Andrew Knutson, and campaigned for him.
Andrew was asked to write a letter in which he appealed to Koya to come back into his life and return home. In this letter printed in the newspaper, it is written that her husband's house is her proper place. Because of this kind of publicity Koya lost.
A letter from her ex-husband was published in the newspaper to invite Koya home.
Political reason: Women got the right to vote after 141 years of independence
7 people are considered the founding fathers of America. There is no woman among them. The first presidential election in America was held in 1789, but women did not even have the right to vote.
He got this right on August 18, 1920, almost 141 years after independence.
American political affairs expert Debbie Walls says that in other countries people vote for a party and then the party elects the PM, but this is not the case in America. Here voters directly vote for the President, making it difficult for women.
This is because people in America believe that women do not have the physical and mental abilities to lead in difficult situations like war, whereas men inherit these qualities.
According to Debbie Walls, Indira Gandhi's popularity as India's only female Prime Minister was attributed to her effective and aggressive personality. In its 231-year electoral history, the US has yet to make strong provisions to increase women's participation in parliament.
In 54 Senate elections held in the last 109 years, the number of women senators did not exceed 20%. There is no provision of any kind of reservation to increase their participation.
Protesters demanding women's voting rights in 1919.
Economic reason: American elections mean big costs
Only billionaires can run for US President. Running an election in America is very expensive. In 1987 Patricia Schroeder mustered up the courage to run for president, but due to an inability to raise funds, she dropped out before the primaries.
Professor Walsh, CNN's political affairs expert, believes that being economically wealthy is becoming an indispensable condition for a candidate in the US election. Women are behind here. Apart from this, collecting money to win elections is also a big challenge.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
