Woman Will Reside as President

¶ … Woman Will Reside as President of the United States

The time has come when we are likely to see within the next decade a woman become president of the United States. This is progress that has come, but slowly, to American women. The United States, like most other societies around the world, began as a patriarchal society. It was a societal condition that required no effort of forethought on the part of the earliest settlers or even our Constitutional forefathers. The earliest settlers of America were from patriarchal societies, and American society evolved within their societal cultural traditions. Women were historically subordinate to men in society, and in their marriages and personal relationships with men until the age of the feminist institution. The age of the feminist institution is not the era of early women's suffrage that is described by Karen Black (2005) as beginning in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York when women -- and men -- came together "to talk about women's rights, or rather the lack of them (p. 10). What I will call the era of feminist institutionalization, began when women became institutionalized as income sources to the family household, when the states and federal governments began calculating women's income as a part of the forecasted tax base, thereby institutionalizing their femininity and income. It began with the "baby boomer" families between 1946 and 1964, when the population increased significantly.

"People were optimistic about the economy because they had not witnessed the Great Depression. Both men and women were better educated than older generations: men went to college to avoid the draft, and women went to college because they were seeking equality. Men and women worked outside the home, a trend that started out of necessity as more men served in the military. It was socially acceptable for women with small children to work outside the home. Baby boomers were more comfortable with technology -- in part, simply because computers were more prevalent -- than were older generations. Baby boomers tended to revolt against authority; the protests against the war in Vietnam and the draft were evidence of this tendency (Mani, 2007, p. 216)."

The era of the feminist institution became firmly imbedded in American society during the counterculture movement of the 1960s, when more and more women were working outside the home in order to earn incomes, and young women also began exploring their sexuality in much the same ways that men had done since perhaps the beginning of civilization.

While progress has been slow for achieving the same rights and being regarded as a body with a brain, as opposed to just a body that ensured every man who was married owned something, property, by virtue of the fact that he had a wife whose body was legally his property; women have nevertheless made social progress, especially during the 1960s, that has brought women to the level of men socially, if not entirely economically (in many employer organizations men are still paid more for the same work done by women (Frankfort-Nachmias and Leon-Guerrero, 2005, pp. 5-7))

and, within recent years, politically. While women have not achieved all of the milestones that they must in order to achieve full enfranchisement of their American rights, the road is nearly to an end as we usher in the next decade, which will predictably see a woman take the reins of American leadership as president.

We have seen the progression of women in the political arena in the United States, although it is perhaps interesting to note that countries other than our own have seemed more progressive about accepting women in roles of leadership and high office. Indira Gandhi won election to India's office as Prime Minister of India, and was re-elected; Golda Meir, was elected to Israel's office of Prime Minister of Israel; Benazir Bhutto was elected to office as President of Pakistan, and when it appeared as though she would once again be elected to that office (Ludwig p. 22), she was assassinated. The British people elected, and re-elected Margaret Thatcher as their Prime Minister, and Thatcher worked closely with then President Ronald Reagan to bring about the end of communism in Russia, East Germany, and the European communist bloc countries of Eastern Europe. The accomplishments of women who have held high political offices around the world have been such that they gained wide recognition around the world, and they were much loved by their constituency in those countries. As Arnold Ludwig points out, however:

"Over the entire twentieth century, only 27 of the 1,941 rulers from all the independent countries all over the world have been women. That's only 1.4%! You then have to temper your interpretation of this statistic with the fact that almost half of these women rulers gained power only because of the infectious charisma that came from being "widows-of-Him" -- the "Him" being their martyred or revered husbands or fathers -- and because of a desire to carry on their mission (p. 21)."

Arnold makes this statement in support of his contention that women "rulers" are the exception, and a big exception. Arnold says too:

"While being intelligent, competent, well-educated, and emotionally stable does not bar you from holding high office, you can also be the ruler of a nation if you have never read a book, do not know how to make a budget, still count with your fingers, take delight in murdering people, stay zonked out on drugs or alcohol during cabinet meetings, pay more attention to the imaginary voices in your head than to your advisors, or, simply put, are ignorant, demented, or crazy. With notable exceptions, the one thing you cannot be as a ruler is a woman (p. 21)."

In the United States, only recently, beginning with the presidency of Bill Clinton, have women in America begun to be recognized as capable and intellectually worthy of fulfilling the duties of high political office. We have seen an increase in the number of women who have been elected by their constituencies to the offices of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. Recently, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, was elected to the prestigious and important office of Speaker of the House. Former President Clinton appointed Madeline Albright to the office of U.S. Secretary of State, a very high profile office and one of great importance.

The Secretary of State is responsible for the duties liaising with important heads of state on behalf of American foreign policy. It is often the Secretary of State, acting on behalf of the president and the American people, who lays the ground work for successful resolution of disputes and outbreaks of war and violence in areas like the Middle East and in Africa, or anywhere in the world where the United States is attempting to establish relationships for purposes of improving America's economics, and protecting its citizens from foreign invasion and threats (Lipman 2005). Madeleine Albright was the first woman to hold the office of Secretary of State (Lipman p. 2).

Clinton also appointed Janet Reno to the office of the United States Attorney General, where she was responsible for a vast network of attorneys working at the U.S. Department of Justice, and across the nation. The Attorney General is the liaising official with law enforcement agencies like the U.S. Marshalls, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service, and the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). The government website found online at http://www.justice.gov/ag/about-oag.html gives this introduction to the office:

"The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the Office of the Attorney General which evolved over the years into the head of the Department of Justice and chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government. The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the executive departments of the Government when so requested. In matters of exceptional gravity or importance the Attorney General appears in person before the Supreme Court. Since the 1870 Act that established the Department of Justice as an executive department of the government of the United States, the Attorney General has guided the world's largest law office and the central agency for enforcement of federal laws (USDOJ:OAG, 2009)."

Reno held the office for the eight years of Clinton's presidency, and resided over some controversial legal issues like the matter of Elian Gonzales, a young Cuban refugee who left the communist island with his mother for the U.S. where they have relatives living in Florida. Elian's mother was lost at sea, but the child, with the aid of other refugees, made it to the Florida shore where, under the law, the child would then be entitled to due process of law governing the rights of illegal aliens to appeal the courts for asylum from a Communist country -- effectively ensuring their opportunity to remain in the United States and to become legal aliens, and, in most cases, U.S. citizens. Under Reno's direction, on April 22, 2000, under the scrutiny of national and international media and news cameras:

"Armed INS officers entered the home (where the child had been living with close relatives) before dawn and within three minutes carried Elian out to a waiting government van. Hours later, the boy was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., and eventually they returned to Cuba (Emert 2005 p. 144)."

Reno's role in handling the case of Gonzalez was highly controversial and politically provocative. Reno withstood with the assault of the Hispanic and Cuban communities around the country, but held firm in her position on handling the matter. It was not, however the first time that Reno came under attack for handling a controversial matter. She likewise was responsible for the attack on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, where David Koresh was the spiritual leader of a cult following that also had a stockpile of weapons in the compound. Authorities claimed that it was the weapons, and not the over zealous behavior of ATF agents that created the disaster that ensued when the compound became engulfed in flames and lives of women and children and Koresh too, were lost. When she left office, asked if there was anything she would have done differently, Reno replied, "I would not have done what I did at Waco (Emert 2005 p. 145)."

Reno was instilled with making difficult decisions, and faced not just the responsibilities of her office, but the responsibility for the decisions she made while in office. "When Reno left office, in January, 2001, she was the second-longest-serving attorney general in history (only William Wert served longer) (Emert p. 144)."

Just as important as Reno and Albright were to the Clinton Administration, so, too, was First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary was no ordinary First Lady, she was a working First Lady, and she took on responsibilities and duties of her position, but, beyond that, she also took on the work of Clinton's promise to reform healthcare -- although she was greatly criticized for the work, and accused of having abandoned the project unfinished. Hillary has addressed the issue, saying constituents on her 2008 campaign trail: "I know what you're thinking. Hillary Clinton and health care? Been there. Didn't do that! (Estrich p. 199)" What is most interesting is that Hillary proved her resiliency as a politician, and that she had learned well, because immediately after this statement acknowledging her failed effort at healthcare reform while Bill was in office, she then immediately went on to say:

"The failure of the government to help contain health costs for employers has led to a fraying of the implicit social contract in which a good job came with affordable coverage. As a whole, our ailing health care system is plagued with underuse, overuse, and misuse. (Estrich p. 199)."

Clinton demonstrates the expert command of political rhetoric and performance when she acknowledges her failure in healthcare reform, but then skips addressing it, because that would lose voters, not win voters, then jumps into an explanation of why healthcare is in trouble, and whose fault it really is; and it's not Hillary's fault, but she is forced to address the issue, because it is a campaign platform issue that her opponents are addressing as campaign platforms.

From the start of Bill Clinton's presidency, it was clear to most of the public and the media that Hillary Clinton had her eyes on the prize, the American presidency, as the first woman to hold that office -- after Bill had served out a second term, of course. Hillary Clinton is aggressive, a hard worker, relentless in her pursuit of the office of the presidency; but she is also a shrewd politician, having learned many life lessons and political lessons along the way to the office of First Lady, and, then, after Bill's second term, as a U.S. Senator from New York.

Hillary came out of the 2008 presidential campaign gates not as a long shot in the race, but as a contender. There was every reason to believe that Hillary would be the first American woman to hold the office of the President of the United States. Few people who followed the polls during the 2008 campaign would have betted against Hillary. She was intelligent, informed on the issues, and she even cried -- as would the old joke have it that the first woman president might cry if she didn't get her way -- but that didn't estrange her from the voters, it endeared her to them, because Hillary has always been perceived by Americans as a hard nose, a woman who epitomized every joke and every off color remark about things that women do that are categorized one way, a negative way, and usually using colorful language -- but if a man does it, it is, he is perceived as being business savvy, smart, quick to solve the matter. When Hillary cried on national TV, it was okay, because she was no longer the hard nose joke; it was okay for Hillary to be a woman. This was perhaps a lesson for her, more than it was a lesson for the voters. Hillary's voter polls showed increased ratings.

Hillary was demonstrating that a woman -- the right woman, could carry a U.S. presidential election. She was a hands down against the Republican Senator from New Mexico, John McCain, who is a celebrated Vietnam war veteran, whose experience as a survivor of a prison camp under the most extreme and horrific circumstances made McCain the best that the Republican Party had to offer to run against Hillary. Hillary would be the first woman president of the United States -- but for one factor: Barack Hussein Obama, a tall, handsome Black American with a beautiful wife and two young daughters and whose very stature and demeanor and ability to speak flawlessly nudged the American boomers into a state of nostalgia that took them to the days of the Kennedys, and how hope was lost when the brothers, first John, and then Robert, were assassinated, and the dream that was theirs was never fulfilled -- until now. A Black American man who embodied everything that had meant anything during the 1960s: moving beyond racism, the Kennedy tragedies, the young handsome man and beautiful wife with young children to roam the halls of the White House once again, and reconnecting American, the contemporary America, with the sense of what had once been so that the young people of today could know what the counterculture movement meant for their future; the Kennedy family, Senator Ted Kennedy, the only surviving brother, and the Princess of Camelot, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the fallen president, endorsed Barack Obama as their candidate, and it appeared, suddenly, that the race was over and Hillary Clinton was finishing second. Barack Obama won the Democratic Party's nomination as presidential candidate to face the Republican Party in the 2008 election.