As we mark International Women’s Day on March 8 during Women’s History Month, it is worthwhile to remind ourselves of women’s major contributions to our country, our society and the world. It is also an appropriate time to ask a very important question.
Over the 250-year history of our nation, women have played a significant, foundational and often overlooked role in the development of the United States. From Abigail Adams and Sacagawea in our nation’s infancy to the many women of the 19th century who helped the country grow and develop, these contributions have been profound. Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells struggled for freedom and truth. Susan B. Anthony advocated for women’s rights during a century in which women were considered chattel and legally inferior.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s – the Progressive Era – a nationwide movement emerged advocating for women to gain the right to vote and to control their own reproductive biology. Suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jane Addams and Sojourner Truth led the struggle to secure women the right to vote and gain full citizenship. Activists such as Dr. Alice Paul and Margaret Sanger led the struggle to legalize the use of birth control.
These reform efforts paid off with the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, giving women the right to vote. Following this breakthrough, women became active in the political arena, which eventually led to trailblazers such as Patsy Mink, Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug.
Today, women make up about 28% of the 535 members of Congress – 125 women in the House of Representatives and 25 women in the Senate. In total, just over 400 women have been elected to Congress in our nation’s history. Considering that women constitute about 50% of our population, those numbers are shockingly low.
Most Western nations have had a female prime minister or president. The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Iceland and Latvia have all selected women as heads of government in recent decades. Pakistan and India, as well as Israel, have also had women serve as national leaders in recent history. Mexico, Slovenia and Moldova currently have women presidents.
Considering that we often refer to our planet as Mother Earth, and that the symbol of our nation is Lady Liberty – not to mention Lady Justice as the symbol of our system of rule by law – it has taken a curiously long time for women to approach equality in American leadership.
This history raises an important question: Why has the United States – a nation that claims to exemplify freedom, liberty, justice and equality for the world – never elected a woman president?
Though we have recently had two eminently qualified women run for the office of president, the nation chose otherwise. In 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton – who had spent eight years in the White House, served as secretary of state and been elected a U.S. senator – received nearly 3 million more votes than her opponent but lost the presidency through the Electoral College.
In 2024, the nation elected Donald Trump – a former president convicted of felony crimes and found liable in court for sexual abuse – rather than Kamala Harris, a former district attorney, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president.
In discussing this dilemma recently with a friend, she expressed frustration yet suggested that perhaps it simply was not the time for a woman to become our leader. While her opinion was heartfelt, the fight for equality should not be forsaken. We must not merely accept the misogynistic status quo in this nation.
It is time for us to accept all people in our society, especially those who have been considered less qualified merely because they are not straight white men. It is time to break from that sad aspect of women’s history – and finally elect a woman president of the United States.
Gene Orr, M.Ed., is a retired educator with 43 years of experience teaching social studies and history in middle school, high school and college in Durango. He lives in Kline.
