Quick question: how many male astronauts can you think of off the top of your head? I have terrible knowledge of any important U.S. history whatsoever, but can immediately think of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and John Glenn. Now how many female astronauts can you think of?
Another question: when you were in elementary school, how many male teachers did you have? I don’t know about you, but I had none. As an elementary education major, I can attest that in my ELED classes of ~30 students, two are male.
From a young age, we were given the idea that jobs are designated for different genders. Men tend to take on harder, high-achieving jobs: astronaut, mathematician, doctor, firefighter, pilot, scientist, President of the United States, while women are expected to have jobs such as nurses, housewives, baristas, receptionists, teachers. Since when did we assign genders to careers?
The first time politics was ever a thought in my brain was in 2008, when Barack Obama won the Presidential election against John McCain. At a young six years old, I understood that this was our first black President, and a few years later, I learned about all of the presidents we’ve had.
I have memories being a young child and feeling uneasy knowing that we’ve never had a female president before. I knew that eventually, a woman would become President, and would inspire young girls all over the nation. We outstandingly made history having our very first black President, so obviously we’d soon make history with our very first female President, right?
When Hillary Clinton was running for President in 2020, her main statement in an attempt to gain votes was that she would make history as our country’s first female President, and I found this so inspirational. I remember reading the comments on a few of her Instagram posts talking about the issue of the United States never having a female President, and just reading messages of pure misogyny. “Our country will be in absolute havoc when she’s on her period”, “A woman’s job is to be in the kitchen, not in office”, “Women shouldn’t have rights, it should be illegal”, “Women are too emotional to be in office. She’d probably cry if a bill of hers didn’t get passed”, “Make me a sandwich”. This was so discouraging to read as a teenager with big hopes and dreams, and made me feel like I was worth nothing; that my life had no purpose other than to appease men.
Upon scrolling far through Hillary’s Instagram to find comments like this on her election posts, I found a post of letter Hillary had received from a young girl. The letter read: “Dear Hilory Clinton, I love you. Here are some resons why I want you to become presodent 1st. You would be the first girl presodent because before thire were only boy presodents. 2nd. You will show wemen are = to men … From Ada Age 8” The letter continues for a bit, but the section I included is the writing most relevant to this article. As you can tell by the misspelled writing, this young girl doesn’t even know how to spell the word “women”, but she knows how important it is to her for a woman to finally be elected President of the United States.
Another letter posted on Instagram written from a young, inspired girl writes, “To Hillary Clinton My name is Maggie. I feel sad I cannot vote for the finals of the election, but my grandpa is voting for you so he is taking my vote! I think you would make a good president because there has never been a girl president…”
These young girls want to definitively know that women are equal to men, but how can we teach children that women and men are equal if honestly, they aren’t?
I had hope in the 2016 election, and although I couldn’t vote, I was nearly positive that Hillary Clinton would win against Donald Trump and that we would finally have a female president. Despite winning the popular vote, Hillary lost, practically reinforcing the commonly known belief that we will never have a female president.
I’ve been so disappointed throughout the past several years of our elections being just male candidates, and felt sadness at this current election knowing I’d have to choose to vote for another male Presidential candidate again. When I found out that Joe Biden dropped out of the Presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris, his Vice President, to be the next Presidential candidate, I felt excitement electrocute throughout my body knowing that we finally had a chance at having a female President.
I’ve noticed that Kamala has been posting online about how she’d be the first President who grew up middle-class and had to work at a McDonald’s, but she hasn’t really been posting about how she would be our first female President. This confused me; why wouldn’t she want to talk about how she’d be making an impact on young girls worldwide, making history in so many different ways? But then I realized that maybe she wasn’t posting about it because she didn’t want all of the expected misogynistic statements that would flurry into her comment section; she didn’t want people to choose to not vote for her because she’s a woman. This is just sad to me and shows how misogynistic and sexist our country is. We shouldn’t be ignoring our gender, but we should be embracing it and using it to prove how powerful women are.
I feel as though having a history of male Presidents shows young girls and women everywhere that they don’t deserve to be in power. That women can’t handle having a job so influential, and that they aren’t mentally or emotionally strong enough to be President of the United States. It’s our job as voters to change this commonly known ideal, and to change the course of history in its entirety.
Our country has consistently and apologetically had an unequal balance of power, dating back to the beginning of time, far before the first President was ever elected in 1789. It is embarrassing at this point knowing how much progress we’ve made as a society, yet men and women simply aren’t equal beings, and it doesn’t seem like they ever will be.
In 1920, a measly hundred years ago, women got the right to vote. In 1965, black men got the full right to vote. In 2008, we had our first black President elected. In 2015, same sex became legal nationwide. In 2021, we had our first female Vice President sworn in. What year will it be when we finally have a female President? Will we have to wait another hundred years for that historical milestone?
As a six year old girl learning what a Presidential election is for the first time, I couldn’t wait for the day that a woman would be President. At almost 22 years old, I am still patiently waiting for that day, hoping and praying that maybe one day, our country will come together and vote for a female President.
It would be so incredibly influential for young girls around the nation to see a woman running the world, and it would prove to them that they can achieve anything their heart desires. It’s time to stop assigning gender roles to different careers, and to let young girls know that they don’t have to be a specific gender to carry important jobs in life.
It is 2024. We are past the day and age where women look to men for guidance and for every decision they make in their life. It is time to take a step towards progressive change, and to make an impact on young, influenceable girls everywhere by showing them that a leader can be anyone, regardless of gender.
I’m not telling you to vote for Kamala solely because of her gender. I know Kamala isn’t perfect, and she does have her flaws. But right now, it’s time to stop looking for perfection, and to choose the better option. Who would you want your kids to look up to?