Why Hasn’t the U.S. Elected a Woman President?

Last month, Mexico elected its first woman president. On June 3, Claudia Sheinbaum joined a growing list of past and present female leaders in Central and South America. And she’s not just female, but also Jewish — and a renowned climate scientist.

Can you even imagine the U.S. electing a female, Jewish climate scientist — as our president?

I didn’t think so. Neither can I. Not a chance in hell.

And that’s a deeply sad, depressing statement about the so-called ‘land of the free.’

Our ‘rebel’ ideals vs. our actual social REALITY

Here’s something truly strange, even remarkable, about female leaders rising and winning elections in Latin America: these areas and nations are dominated by Spanish cultural norms, which are usually very ‘macho’ and aggressively ‘masculine.’

Yet somehow, over the past few decades, several of these ‘macho’ countries managed to elect women to their highest offices — which the U.S. has consistently failed to do.

How can this be? Isn’t the U.S. the original ‘rebel nation’ — you know, the one that initiated a string of democratic revolutions and rebellions around the world? Aren’t we the original modern ‘rule breakers’ who disdained monarchy and proclaimed “liberty and justice for ALL”?

. . .

Well… not so fast. If we go by the actual sociopolitical performance of the U.S., we must admit: we always hear plenty of noble aspirations and noble beliefs expressed, for sure — but they’re not often backed up by action or any real, substantive change.

Plus, if we then add in the ‘no-female-top-leader-EVER’ problem, it starts to look like the U.S. is really one of the most backward, hypocritical, and misogynistic nations. In the entire world.

Yes, our vaunted ‘land of the free’ is actually NOT that way — at all. In fact, it’s one of the most repressive, controlling, and misogynistic ‘advanced/free nations’ on the planet.

Or, let’s amend that statement: in truth, the U.S. IS the most repressive, controlling, and misogynistic ‘advanced/free nation’ on the planet.

Which means: we aren’t ‘advanced’ or ‘free’ at all.

A brutal foundation of genocide and atrocities

What could possibly account for this strange, almost sinister dichotomy that underlies the ‘modern’ United States? How can the U.S., of all places, be among the MOST repressive and misogynistic nations on Earth? How is this even possible?

Both I and my wife have been pondering these questions for years, and we’ve arrived at some uncomfortable, disturbing answers.

First and foremost, the U.S. was founded and built around genocide and slavery. Without the systematic elimination and removal of the Native Americans, our drive to fulfill our supposed ‘Manifest Destiny’ and take over the continent could never have been fulfilled.

Likewise, without all the free labor and economic benefits of slavery, the ‘freedom-loving’ Whites could never have created such a vibrant, energetic new nation and economic powerhouse.

These two foundational practices of the nascent United States show that our nation was, in fact, founded by ruthless European outlaws, renegades, and social terrorists… in the guise of ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘patriots.’

From the very beginning, the U.S. has committed unspeakable atrocities against Native peoples and Blacks — and, although things have improved for them (slightly), it continues to do so to this day.

Repression and atrocities toward women continue… and continue

But what about women, you may ask? In the U.S., women have always been second-class citizens — or rather, for most of our history women weren’t allowed to be citizens at all, and never even got the vote until well into the 20th century.

Amazingly, freed Black slaves got the vote (technically speaking, but not in reality) well before women did in the U.S.

So, in the ‘foundational’ U.S., the atrocities committed against the Native Americans and Blacks were compounded by ongoing, more subtle atrocities against women. We didn’t (usually) try to kill or enslave women — but we were very, very skillful at abusing them and keeping them powerless and ‘in their place.’

And in today’s ‘modern’ repressive America, this exact pattern is again re-asserting itself, as many red states and even our Supreme Court strip away women’s rights to control their own bodies, reproduction, and family planning.

That’s a true modern-day misogynist atrocity, and it’s ongoing now — and getting worse by the day, in many states.

‘Cowboy culture’ plus ‘boys will be boys’: a misogynistic social nightmare

Then there’s our famed (infamous?) ‘cowboy culture.’ Around the world, the U.S. is known for its wild, violent gun-slinger mentality.

As many commentators have noted, today guns and gun owners have far more rights in the U.S. than do women in general, and the prevalence of guns and even military-style assault weapons has led (of course!) to increasing numbers of mass shootings.

And who perpetrates these mass shootings? Almost without exception, it’s screwed-up, over-emotional, tortured young men — or depressed, unbalanced boys, really.

In many ways, the U.S. itself is a young, adolescent nation — and our national immaturity is reflected in the many ways boyishly immature, cocky values and beliefs underlie our entire society. It’s no accident that the far-right, violence-prone group the ‘Proud Boys’ refers to its members as ‘boys,’ not men — and it’s also no accident that women aren’t even allowed in this all-boys ‘fight club.’

For any society to base its identity and core values on youthful bravado and adolescent male angst and anger is a sure recipe for cultural disaster. No wonder people from other nations and cultures, all over the world, shake their heads in disbelief when they hear about what goes on here.

For there’s simply no ‘nice’ way to put it: today’s ‘modern’ Americans often behave like immature, arrogant, entitled brats (and usually White male entitled brats, to boot).

Remember the creepy popular saying “Boys will be boys”? Wink-wink, nudge-nudge. When an entire huge nation and culture behave like naughty, puerile ‘boys being boys,’ we can be forgiven for asking: Please, just where are all the adults… and further, are there any adults?!

The U.S. is ‘stuck’ in a patriarchal, misogynistic version of Christianity

Last, but certainly not least, there’s America’s immersion in a highly patriarchal and misogynistic version of ‘Christianity.’

Even though our founders worked hard to separate church and state, and keep them separate, many millions of Americans now believe the U.S. was founded as a ‘Christian nation’… and that the Bible dictates that men should be in control and women should be subservient.

The only other nations that intermix politics and religion as thoroughly as the U.S. are various Middle Eastern and Eastern Islamic nations — and even among these, some heavily Islamic nations (like Pakistan) have managed to elect a woman prime minister or president.

The nations most like the U.S., in terms of misogynistic politics, are probably Iran, with its strict Islamic orthodoxy and all-male leadership — namely, its long string of grey-bearded ayatollahs — and Saudi Arabia, with its intensely repressive policies toward women.

Sadly, we’re in very bad company here. If we’re defined by the company we keep — well, American women are just screwed.

It’s not exactly comforting to see how much the U.S. is like one of our mortal enemies, Iran, in our attachment to heavily religious and misogynistic politics.

Hell, when even strict Islamic nations like Pakistan are less religiously misogynistic than the U.S. — it’s clear that something has gone very, very wrong here.

The ‘reign’ of Trump and entitled White boy-men

All these dysfunctional psychological and social patterns in the U.S. are no laughing matter.

Recall how, during Trump’s ‘reign’ from early 2017 — early 2021, many pundits and politicians wondered if there were enough ‘adults in the room’ to constrain or limit Trump’s childish behavior, dangerous ideas, and frequent lies.

Well, now we know the answer to those musings: there have NOT been enough adults around to limit or constrain him, and thus we have Trump — the ultimate entitled White man-child — running for president yet again, and subjecting all of us to his insufferable whining, petulance, and lying incitement again.

The danger signs and the whiff of looming disaster are palpable.

Over the past nine years, Trump constantly gave Americans his total permission and blessing to be their worst, most entitled, and most racist and misogynist selves. And he encouraged all the red states and our so-called ‘Supreme Court’ to undermine and limit the rights and freedoms of both women and non-white voters.

So much for freedom and equality.

Why we WON’T elect a woman president

The horrible thing is, ALL these psychological and social patterns link together and interact, bolstering and intensifying each other.

If we return, now, to the question posed by the title of this article, “Why Can’t the U.S. Elect a Woman President?”, several probable explanations come to mind, as I’ve described. None of them are positive, and ALL of them have terrible consequences.

I’d say the bottom line is this: we can’t elect a woman president because we simply don’t want to — and won’t. And we don’t want to because we’re too damn immature, entitled, and adolescent in our thinking and our social and political concepts, and we’re too damn ‘stuck’ in an ugly cult of toxic masculinity.

The U.S. can’t and won’t elect a woman president because our nation is still caught in the iron grip of misogyny, and our entire system is ruled by arrogant, aggressive man-children who love to lord it over others and continually knock women (and Blacks) down.

For all these reasons, our ‘blessed’ United States will likely continue to be a major, major disappointment. Misogyny, patriarchy, and repressive ‘Christian’ politics are all alive and well here — and ALL of these social patterns deliberately rip power and self-determination away from women.

It’s really quite clear: until the U. S. repudiates misogyny; false, misogynistic ‘Christianity’; and uber-’masculine’ patriarchy, nothing much will change here.

And since the U.S. is nowhere near repudiating these horrid belief systems — in fact, they’re now resurgent and booming — we are also nowhere near electing a woman president. We’re not even close.

It’s as simple and chilling as that.

—

This post was previously published on An Injustice!

***

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.