Sunday, March 09, 2008
Are Americans Ready for a Woman President?
By Jacinda Chan
UC Berkeley
As International Women’s Day passes, a celebration of the achievements of women’s right, can we say the United States has advanced to the point of electing a woman as president? Well, let us look at some basic facts.
Despite advancements women have made, they still earn only seventy-seven cents for every $1 their male counterpart earns, and women of color earn even less than that. Women still face the challenge of balancing work and family. To get to the top of your career, a woman must sacrifice her family life. According to one report, 42 percent of corporate women are childless by age 40, but only 14 percent planned to be.
Obviously, women are still somewhat second class citizens in the workplace because they cannot have both a family and a career like men. Because of this disparity, America is clearly not ready for a woman to hold such a high power position because the discrimination that happens in this country has to do with careers.
Even after Clinton’s victory in Texas, she will still not able to beat McCain because not enough people like her. A good strategy for Clinton would be to get Obama to choose her as his running mate. This way the two can combine both their supporters to hopefully outnumber McCain, who will probably get more support just for being a traditional Caucasian man. Not only that, but they can combine the best of both plans, and in this way Clinton can prepare the U.S. for having a woman leader. Plus in eight years, if Obama is reelected, Clinton will become the most likely nominee of the democratic party. Nobody ever said it would be easy for a woman to advance her career. In fact, it would probably be a struggle, but at least, this way she would be making progress for all women.
