Women and Minority Leaders

[note: Sunday six is in entry below this one]

Kelly asked about Hillary Clinton's announcement that she was running for President of the United States.

For the past 3 semesters, my students have been assigned a paper investigating if the United States is ready for a Woman president as a culture. I've chosen to have them look at how women are affected, but most of the barriers that woman face are the same for minorities of both sexes.

The truth is the Hillary is not the first woman to run for president. Many women who run for president are not able to even make it to the ballots for the primary in their own states. I don't believe any of them have made it to more than a few state ballots. In 1999, Elizabeth Dole attempted a run for president, but she withdrew before the Republican National Convention because she was unable to raise enough money to run an effective campaign. Prior to Hillary, she was the candidate who had the biggest national name recognition.

According to: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/006232.html "149.1 million The number of females in the United States as of July 1, 2004. That exceeds the number of males (144.5 million). Males outnumbered females in every five-year-age group through the 35- to 39-age group. Starting with the 40- to 44-age group, women outnumbered men. At 85 and over, there were more than twice as many women as men. <http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/NC-EST2004-sa.html>"

Yet, in spite of the split of women to men, women hold a small percentage of the positions in either Congress or I put together a table of women and minorities currently holding positions in Congress or as State Governor.

Minorities include African American, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific American. A google search did not pull up any result for minorities elected as Governor, so I didn't include those facts.

While all of these positions are state elections, they are visible enough to draw the attention of special interest groups. But, they don't require the kind of fund raising to launch a national campaign.

Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 was the first woman nominated by one of the two major parties in the United States.

Can Hillary achieve what Elizabeth Dole couldn't - it remains to be seen. I don't mean get the party nomination - that is dependent on if she is the best candidate - but run an effective campaign until the convention. The mix of H. Clinton and Obama should be fun to watch in the coming year.

I'm more concern about why 20 years after Geraldine Ferraro was included on the ballot have we not become more interested in why we are not grooming our women and minorities better for these positions. Does the lack of women and minorities as CEOs of major companies affect their ability to fund raise? How are men groomed for this position? What is it about the cultures of other countries that have made them more comfortable electing women to lead their countries?

I can say that my class (which have proven to be very conservative), the biggest hindrance seems to be the show of strength (I had one young man mentioned that he doesn't respect other countries who have elected women leaders) as the "Leader of the Free World" and a woman's inability to lead a military campaign as Commander-in-Chief. I did have to point out to them that not all presidents have military experience and some that do have never served in battle.

So, why do you think we are so far behind our counterparts in the election of women and minorities as leader of the country (I've not compared the women or minorities in the governing (congress equivalent) in other countries). Is there some change we should make to fund raising rules to make it easier for women and minorities to raise funds to run a campaign.