What is it going to take for America to elect a female president?

If it happens in our lifetime it may be a conservative Republican. No Democratic woman will ever win.

In your opionion, OP, why does America need to elect a female president?

How about the basics like half the population of this country is female and we've never had representation.

Women’s right to vote will have to be revoked.

R3 there are more registered female voters than male. They hold the power in the ballot box. So what does that tell you about women’s desire for representation in the oval office overall?

The problem R2 is that both Hillary and Kamala ran against a shamefully unqualified candidate. Those both should’ve been slam dunk wins. It’s not specifically that the US “needs” a female president, but when the choice is between a qualified woman and a megalomaniac, it shouldn’t be a difficult choice.

[quote]What is it going to take for America to elect a female president?

Women have to stop hating each other.

OP 1 highly qualified and educated woman ran against Donald Trump

I wrote a long post about this right after the election, pardon if I drop it in here again.

There's a formula, and it's a simple one.

The Dem only wins if either (1) voters are dissatisfied with the GOP incumbent, or (2) voters are not particularly restless for a change from the Dem incumbent.

This formula explains every US presidential victory for at least the past half-century. All male Democratic candidates have failed whenever these conditions are absent. Why were we expecting women to prevail somehow in conditions where men could not? Hillary was supposed to just keep the Obama administration going from 8 years to 12 years despite all the clear signs that the voters were getting restless? Kamala was supposed to continue the Biden-Harris administration while the voters were clearly saying they were unhappy with it?

Will America ever have a woman as our head of state? I strongly hope so. But if she is a Democrat, we’ll need for her to run in "Unpopular GOP incumbent" conditions like Bill and Barack and Joe did, before we can really know whether or not it’s possible. Our two female nominees were not given these favorable conditions. Again, no male Democrat has ever won (in my lifetime) without them.

2028 could be such an opportunity.

OP the first female head of government was in Sri Lanka in the Sixties - it’s hardly a new phenomenon, “Third World” or otherwise.

It’ll most likely be a Republican woman.

Nominate one who deserves to be elected. Who understands the Electoral College. Who can complete a sentence.

You don't win elections simply by being "highly educated" and "well qualified."

Not in America, because it’s an anti-intellectual society.

[quote]We say “Developing Nation” these days OP

It's the "Global South" now (and if you want to be totally up to date, the "Global Majority").

"Third World" is a holdover from the Cold War era (just like we don't refer to the USA as the "Leader of the Free World" anymore in 2025)

It has a large underclass and pervasive beliefs that are based on misinformation and a religious culture that’s really more a social conditioning than one of moral fortitude.

White women need to divest from centering white men in their lives and stop voting majority GOP.

I could see a Condoleezza Rice/Madeleine Albright type--a stern, distinguished, post-sexual woman who is not perceived as "shrill"--being elected.

Career criminals.

A majority of women will never elect another woman POTUS.

There can be a bit of jealousy there of highly educated and accomplished women ("Why should SHE have had all the opportunities? What makes HER so special?"). Some women voters felt threatened by HRC.

Audit the voting machines or get rid of them altogether. and go back to paper balloting only.

We haven't had a free and fair election since 1996.

A decent candidate

Not before the currently 25-year-old David Hogg has had his turn

R17 White women do not care about white men that way. The idea that they’re brainwashed or something is just so false and is a liberal way of giving them the benefit of the doubt.

White women were some of the most brutal and cruelest slave owners.

[quote] The problem [R2] is that both Hillary and Kamala ran against a shamefully unqualified candidate. Those both should’ve been slam dunk wins.

The same could have been said for Trump's competition in the 2016 Republican primaries -- Rubio, Cruz, Kasich, Christie, Jeb Bush, etc. I hated all of them, but one of them -- ANY of them -- should have been able to beat Trump. Trump is a unique creature. He's able to beat his opponents despite being supremely unqualified, incompetent, unlikable, and stupid. In fact, those seem to be the very qualities that appeal to many Americans.

[quote]White women do not care about white men that way. The idea that they’re brainwashed or something is just so false and is a liberal way of giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Middle class white women will have more solidarity with their middle class husbands than they will with a woman of a different class or color. It’s part of their survival instinct that stems from them feeling they have what they have because of their husbands.

Because we are not a country of smart people. It's really that simple. Spend time with people from outside the US...then come back to a group of average Americans. I'm embarrassed to identify as an American when I travel because I believe it says to people I am a typical idiot from the states who believes everything he's told.

The U.S. has all the extremes: some of the smartest people in the world (at the very top) and some of the dumbest, the most educated and the most ignorant, the best universities and the worst universities, the best and the worst food, the best and the worst restaurants, the fittest people and the most obese, the best medical care and some of the highest levels of medical ignorance... No wonder Roxane Gay is so often exhausted.

WHEN ARE THOSE STUPID WHITE WOMEN GOING TO ELECT A WOMAN?

Of course Americans will vote for a woman.

Funny how everyone here ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton received more votes than Trump.

R25 I didn’t say they are brainwashed, I said they center white men in their lives. Actively. The reasons for that are not as much emotional as they are financial. If/when they stop doing that we’ll have a woman president.

This is Chicago Politics rehashed for the 21st century.

We will get a female and/or brown president to haul out the trash when a larger-than-life asshole dies.

Everyone blames her for her predecessor’s fuckups. They watch her weight. Then, throw her out once they’ve found a new idiot.

“Your vote matters” - only when it’s honest. We won’t see that for some time.

[quote] I could see a Condoleezza Rice/Madeleine Albright type--a stern, distinguished, post-sexual woman who is not perceived as "shrill"--being elected.

Elissa Slotkin reminds me of them. I would love it if she got elected POTUS because progressives hate her and their heads would explode if she were elected POTUS.

But, I think the first female president will be a Republican.

I think a female Democrat does get elected POTUS it will be a dark horse type. It won't be Jasmine Crockett or AOC.

R34 Jasmine Crockett would make voters run from the polls.

And, the problem with female candidates and particularly black female candidates is that instead of simply saying “here’s a qualified candidate,“ the Democratic Party has to make a big deal about their race and gender as if it’s the be all end all of everything.

R35 oh sure it’s the DEMOCRATS making a big deal about that 🙄

I'd love to be wrong about this, but I don't see there being a female US President in my lifetime. This country isn't evolved enough.

Crockett would also be seen as too progressive.

I think if Meliane Stansbury was from a larger state and not New Mexico, she would have more support as a possible 2028 Democratic contender.

R38 Crockett is just too ghetto and too abrasive. Don’t get me wrong, I like that she pushes back, but telling Elon Musk to “fuck off,” is not how a politician should conduct themselves. It’s not that I don’t agree with the sentiment, Elon Musk does need to fuck off and die, but we’re already dealing with a president who is completely off the rails and has no decorum whatsoever. We need to get back to normal.

20 years, that’s what it’s gonna take.

[quote]White women were some of the most brutal and cruelest slave owners.

I second this. I've known a few racists in my life, and the worst were always white women.

Maybe ... just maybe ... Clinton and Harris had lousy political skills?

Never trust anything that bleeds for 7 days and doesn’t die.

R18 not gonna happen, already tried and failed. weren’t Hillary and Harris distinguished and post-sexual?

Well first all the boomers and I am one of them, need to die off but I voted for Hillary and Harris most boomers won't vote for a woman unless it is a Republican woman.

White women could stop voting GOP for starters, but I know they won't.

r45, I'm still available!

Maybe a conspicuously stupid racist narcissistic bigot female with with empty slogans and no real plan would attract the majority of voters.

R2, half of the country is, so why not?

Getting rid of Trump and his ilk.

An injection of a Northeast and West Coast vibe.

The “it will NEVER happen” people in this thread are tiresome.

They also said there’d never be a Black president until the minute there was one, and I do mean the minute he was sworn in.

Times move on. Societies evolve. Inevitably. America is no doubt more backwards than most places, but if we continue to exist as a species beyond our current bullshit, it will happen.

Young people need to be taught better. They need to pay attention to the news and vote. It's the old generation of boomers which I belong to is the largest voting group. We were told how important it was and one of our rights.

I hate to hear the attitude from younger people that they're not voting because all of the candidates are bad. That's not true and I'm shocked to find that's their concept. I'm infuriated just thinking about it.

R54 Young people have been raised and conditioned to believe that everyone else must bend to their will and that they must not compromise.

R27 White women are just as invested in oppressive systems as white men. The notion that white women are these passive beneficiaries of patriarchy or that their complicity is only about “survival” is utter nonsense.

White women are the most successful UNEMPLOYED group in the United States.

I already talked about slavery, we are aware that white women were the biggest OPPONENTS in women’s suffrage? They weren’t fighting for equality, they were fighting to preserve a racial and class hierarchy that SERVED them.

It’s about entitlement, status, and power. Many white women have historically seen themselves not as oppressed, but as deserving of special treatment within the system and expecting to be served, deferred to, and protected, often at the expense of others.

R55 I agree. I've noticed that attitude with many Gen Zers and some of the younger millennials (the ones who are in their early 30s). They don't want to compromise at all.

Nothing. They see it as the fall of Rome or something.

Oprah might have had a shot in the Obama era.

R53 aka Ms Literal! We know THAT! We meant in our lifetime!

We're defeated and exhausted ok!?

People must evolve.

[quote] Nominate one who deserves to be elected. Who understands the Electoral College. Who can complete a sentence.

Why do female candidates have to meet a higher standard than males?

Also, both fendue candidates in the US spoke in complete sentences. What country are you thinking of?

MSNBC segment from yesterday. The AOC brat is probably going to run in 2028.

"The right one," you know, the one so many gays haven't met yet.

[quote]Even Pakistan had a female Prime Minister.

And look how that ended up!