India News Get -InternationalUS Presidential Election, US Female President, Kamala Harris, Madam US President, Donald Trump
Year 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first female Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Year 1966, Indira Gandhi became the first woman Prime Minister of India. In 1969, Golda Meir became Israel’s first female prime minister. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto became the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The list of countries that have placed women in the most powerful positions in the country is quite long. Over the past 60 years, more than 60 countries have elected a woman President or Prime Minister. The only surprising thing is that America, the most powerful democratic country in the world, has not succeeded so far.
There is an election in America on November 5th. This is happening for the second time in the 231-year history of American democracy when a woman is running for president. First of all, Hillary Clinton was a presidential candidate in 2016, while for this election, Kamala Harris is of Indian origin.
But why has no woman become president in 23 decades of American political history? The story tells of these women who were sometimes put in prison for dreaming of becoming president and who were sometimes asked if they would be able to press the nuclear button…
Story-1
He wanted to become president, he’s about to leave the country
American leader Victoria Clafin Woodhall was the first to express her right to run for president. Woodhall was born in 1838 into a family who traveled from town to town pretending to sell magic potions. However, these medications only contained alcohol.
Woodhall was only 34 years old, while the age to run for office in the United States is 35. She was unable to run for office, but leaders who hated Woodhall had her arrested. He was charged with spreading obscenities.
Story-2
Inherited from her husband’s policies, Russia is called the devil
Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to declare her candidacy for president within a major party. Margaret inherited the politics of her husband Clyde Smith. Clyde was a great leader in the Republican Party. He died in 1940.
In 1964, he ran as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. It was the first time that a female leader of the Republican Party had sought this position.
Margaret Chase Smith said in a speech:
Some believe that women should not aspire to the White House. It’s a man’s world. It should stay that way.
Margaret Chase Smith is campaigning for the nomination.
The day Margaret expressed her desire to run, a Washington Post reporter declared her campaign non-serious. Margaret did not have enough money to compete with the other Republican candidates.
During the campaign, he said:
Women are human beings too. I hope people will vote for me.
However, she lost the nomination election. Margaret was a famous leader of her time. He was well known in the Soviet Union because of his strong criticism of leftism. Nikita Khrushchev, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, said: “Margaret is a devil in female form. »
Story-3
Being a woman was punished more than being black
Shirley Chisholm was the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. She was elected to office in New York in 1968, becoming the first black woman in the country to achieve this feat.
The president is far-fetched, it took 227 years to become a woman vice president
It dates back to 1984. A women’s organization persuaded Democratic presidential candidate Mondale to nominate a woman as his vice-presidential candidate. Mondale accepted and Jerry Ferraro was selected for the position.
Everyone believed that the time would soon come when a female presidential candidate would also be elected. But those hopes were dashed when the American people elected Ronald Reagan of the Republican Party instead of Mondale.
According to American journalist Alan Malcolm, the kind of questions asked of Ferraro during the election campaign were enough to prove that America was not ready to give power to women.
At the same time, during a debate, Republican vice-presidential candidate George Bush mocked Ferraro and said, “Miss Ferraro, should I explain to you what the difference is between embassy of Iran and that of Lebanon.
Ferraro became furious at Bush’s statement and claimed it was said to her because she was a woman.
After this election, confidence in women declined among leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties. It took 227 years for a woman to become vice president of the United States. In the 2020 elections, Kamala Harris, of Indian origin, became the first woman to hold this position.
Why hasn’t America had a Madam President yet?
According to American experts, there are 3 reasons not to become a woman president until now…
1. Business reason: The husband published a letter in a newspaper to keep his divorced wife away from politics.
According to American political scientist Irene Natividad, as in other countries around the world, American women also obtained many basic rights much later than men. For example, before independence, in American schools, boys were taught to read and write, but not girls to write.
For this reason, women knew how to read but did not know how to write. Women used to write an “X” in place of their name as a signature. Women didn’t even have property rights. For these reasons, she began to fall behind socially. It took him a while to compete with men in all areas.
According to the Gallup polling agency, in 1937, 64% of those surveyed believed that women did not deserve the position of president. He said politics is a man’s world and it should stay that way. According to the agency, more than 5% of voters still have the same vision of women.
Films began to be made in America, in which women’s work of caring for the house, loving their husbands and giving birth to children was shown. This was the period in the 1950s when women’s freedom was being seized again in America.
Psychologists of the time began to attribute all of society’s ills to women who went to work. This not only impacted the lives of working women, but also dealt a major blow to women participating in American electoral politics.
In 1958, an MP named Koya Knutson decided to run in the by-election. Opponents tracked down Knutson’s ex-husband, Andrew Knutson, and made him campaign.
Andrew was forced to write a letter in which he called on Koya to come back into his life and return home. In this letter published in the newspaper, it was written that her husband’s house was her rightful place. Koya lost because of this kind of publicity.
A letter from her ex-husband was published in the newspaper inviting Koya to her home.
Political reason: women gained the right to vote after 141 years of independence
7 people have been considered the founding fathers of America. There are no women among them. The first American presidential election was held in 1789, but women weren’t even allowed to vote.
They were proven right on August 18, 1920, about 141 years after independence.
American political affairs expert Debbie Walls says that in other countries, people vote for the party and then the party elects the prime minister. But that’s not the case in America. Here, voters vote directly for the president, which makes it difficult for women.
Indeed, Americans believe that women lack the physical and mental abilities to lead in difficult situations like war, while men have these hereditary qualities.
According to Debbie Walls, the popularity of Indira Gandhi, who was India’s only female Prime Minister, was seen as due to her efficient and aggressive personality. In its 231-year electoral history, America has still not been able to make strong provisions to increase women’s participation in Parliament.
In the 54 senatorial elections held over the past 109 years, the number of women senators has not exceeded 20%. No reservations are planned to increase their participation.
Demonstrators demanding women’s right to vote in 1919
Economic reason: US elections involve big expenses
Only billionaires were able to run in the American presidential elections. Running for office in the United States is very expensive. In 1987, Patricia Schroeder found the courage to run for president, but unable to raise funds, she dropped out before the primaries.
Professor Walsh, a political affairs expert at CNN, believes that being financially successful is becoming an essential condition for a candidate in the US elections. Here, women are falling behind. Apart from this, raising funds to win the elections is also a big challenge.
Sketch – Sandeep Pal
Graphics – Kunal Sharma
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What is the fight between the elephant and the donkey in the US elections: There is a close fight between Trump and Kamala in 7 states, if he wins here, he will definitely become president.
It was September 8, 1960. Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy reached the US state of Oregon for campaigning. Here, the supporters surrounded him.
Kennedy saw something in the crowd of admirers that made him smile. In fact, some of Kennedy’s supporters brought two donkeys with them. Kennedy stroked the donkeys and congratulated those who brought them… Click here to read the full story