Newspaper OpEd (2008)
Robert P. Watson
Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling
The surprise selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee has resurrected the possibility of a woman serving in the White House. The nomination is perhaps the boldest in American history and raises intriguing questions about gender while presenting challenges for both parties.
Even though several women have run for president, dating all the way to 1872 when Victoria Woodhull made history with her third-party campaign, America has never elected a woman president. We came close only once – this year when Hillary Clinton nearly won the Democratic nomination. Palin becomes only the second woman picked as VP of a major party, the other being Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic nominee for VP in 1984. In short and despite Palin's nomination, the country is not beyond gender bias in presidential politics.
This becomes apparent when one considers that, since just the end of WWII, roughly 60 women around the world have headed their governments. The list of nations includes America's closest allies – the UK, Canada, and Israel – as well as the world's largest democracy, India, and a Muslim country, Pakistan. At present, such diverse countries as Germany, Liberia, and Argentina are led by women.
So why not in America? In part because many women leaders were elected as prime ministers in parliamentary systems, not presidential systems which require a nation-wide vote, such as in the US. Many of them also had direct family ties to the office, with husbands or fathers who served before them. But part of the challenge has been America's unease with gender and leadership.
Such facts are not lost on many of Hillary's female supporters, who are expressing frustration at once again being unable to vote for a woman for president. So will they vote for Palin? It is doubtful that a majority of Hillary's female supporters – a base the Democrats need in order to win in November – would vote for John McCain because of Palin. Most Democratic women would be insulted at such a suggestion. After all, Palin opposes most traditional women's issues. However, McCain is probably banking on the race staying close enough so that, if even a small percentage of women voters – say 1 million of the 18 million who supported Hillary – vote Republican in one or more swing states, it could be the difference. (Remember, in the popular vote in 2000, Al Gore beat Bush by only a ½ million votes.)
But the selection of Palin undercuts the Republican Party's argument that Barack Obama is too young and inexperienced to be the Commander-in-Chief. Obama is far more experienced in national and international affairs than Palin, and is three years her senior. Likewise, McCain's suggestion that the times are too volatile to risk voting for Obama have been undercut by his selection of someone only one heartbeat away from the presidency who, until two years ago, was a stay-at-home mother, part-time fisherwoman, beauty pageant contestant, and mayor of small town in rural Alaska. If, as Republicans allege, Obama's work as a community organizer, law professor, and state senator don't prepare him to handle a crisis, then what about Palin's brief stint on the PTA?
There are other gendered concerns. For example, female candidates have always had the double standard that they must be twice as experienced and know twice as much as their male opponents. No one would accuse Palin of being too experienced or too knowledgeable of the issues! Democrats, however, must be careful about attacking Palin's limited credentials because they have claimed it isn't experience but character and judgment that matter. And it appears Palin has shown both in abundance when she fought the rampant corruption within her own party in Alaska. Every attack on Palin by Democrats also risks alienating disaffected female voters.
Like Obama, Sarah Palin rose from obscurity against all odds to make history and both did so largely by the force of their own personalities. As such, with two historic firsts on the presidential tickets this fall, we may soon learn whether race and gender truly matter.
