Tag: Woman

In the context of gender equality, what would be the honest answer to this question: “Is America ready?” Erika Falk, who threw the poser, was perturbed by the failure of the most advanced democracy to lead by example in electing a woman president in its over 240 years of existence.

At a time when the advocacy for gender equality has become a global mantra, especially in politics, education and leadership, the result of the November 8 Presidential Election of the United States (U.S.) has ignited global concerns about the true nature of Americans and their stand on equality which they gleefully preach.

The results of the last U.S. election have probably shown that gender equality is only a concept being preached, but not practised by America. It tells us that the gender disparity in the U.S. politics may continue for as long as its political class realises there should be equality in the true sense of the word.

Paradoxically, how America’s citizens find a woman unsuitable for the White House is, in no small way, a setback for the absolute realisation of gender equality in the world.

Does American politics offer equal opportunities for both genders? I believe it does. There is a maximum level-playing ground for both genders to have equal opportunities. However, it would not be enough to take the above statement as a general yardstick to conclude that gender equality is possible in U.S., taking into account that no woman has delivered victory speech.

Not even Senator Hillary Clinton whose campaign team had prepared a stage for that. By this, it may seem to say loudly that despite the balanced chance, the actual decision is not yet made.

After Shirley Chisholm entered some primaries and had her name placed in nomination at the Democratic Party Convention in 1972, Mrs Clinton’s nomination brought the greatest momentum to the gender equality campaign. What an unprecedented feat for women. The entire world had to wake up from its bad dream that Hillary’s presidency would be the greatest thing America would teach the world.

The gender stereotype, although beclouded by personal flaws of the former Secretary of State, ostensibly played out in the decision of the Electoral College that handed victory to Mr Donald Trump.

Whatever the arguments, it will be difficult to address matters of gender equality in the dimension of electoral decisions. Sometimes, it is not a matter of gender but personality. Many people don’t trust Mrs Clinton. And the Trump’s slogan – Make America Great Again – really appealed to the emotions and sentiments of average Americans who are not happy by how globalisation has offered chances to immigrants at the expense of their jobs and revered supremacy.

There were elements of gender inequality in U.S. presidential polls. Jeff Manza asserted that social scientists and political commentators have frequently pointed to differences between men and women in voting and policy attitudes as evident in the emerging gender gap in U.S. politics. That incontestable fact has become inimical norm in vote choice, opinion and party identification which have remained a common feature in the U.S. political hemisphere.

From the foregoing, the expectation that a woman would gain marginally greater support from her own gender was amazingly undermined in the last election.

According to Claire Zilman in an article published in Fortune Magazine titled: Hillary Clinton had the biggest voter gender gap on record, much of the coverage of Mrs Clinton’s loss in the presidential race pointed to the Democratic Party’s failure to dominate the women’s vote. While Clinton did capture majority of women voters (54 per cent), according to exit polling, she lost some key constituencies, including white women, 53 per cent of whom cast their ballots for Mr Trump.

The media’s portray of women also contributed to Clinton’s loss. Although she had the support of the mainstream media establishment, but media projections of women during the time of the election did more harm than good.

When the media, according to Maria Braden, implied that women are anomalies in high public office, the public is likely to regard them as that, rather than an integral part of government. Ms Braden gave instances of how American woman senators have been described by the media – “strangers in the Senate.”

Other potent factors like sentiment and egocentric feelings of the male gender have perpetually been propelled and articulated by the media, and they remain potent straws that broke camel’s back.

Despite its leadership and strong advocacy for gender equality, Andrew Soergel argued that America lags behind other countries in the West in terms of giving high-level positions to women. In a latest report and ranking by World Economic Forum, the true position of America in terms of gender equality is more relayed. Researchers have declared that America has a ways to go when it comes to parity between men and women, ranking it 45th out of 144 countries on the list.

From all parameters, the honest answer to the question about America’s readiness to break the woman president jinx is still a case of the last straw, which we all await to break the camel’s back. As for now, there is little to show for the gender equality advocacy as championed by the most advanced democracy.

Whenever the decision is made, America would be said to have eventually imbibed a culture successfully practised by other democracies, including countries in the so-called Third World.

Shakir is a Master’s student of International Relations at Cyprus International University