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Why has the USA never elected a female president? A scientific research in International Relations and Gender Studies
Gia Mosashvili – author, MA candidate of Diplomacy and International Politics at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Ia Makharadze – head of the topic, professor at Georgian National University, Doctor of Philosophy
The Right to Vote: A Conference at the Centennial of the 19th Amendment held by Washburn University
Topeka, KS, United States
2020
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About the author
Gia Mosashvili is MA candidate of Diplomacy and International Politics at Ivane Javakhishvili
Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. On 29 June, 2018, he defended bachelor thesis 'Media
Ethics and Political Elections' at Georgian National University. On 5-7 April 2019, he
participated in European Student Conference 2019 and defended scientific research 'Frozen
Conflicts in Moldova and Georgia' at Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States. On 15-
17 November 2019, he participated in Western Conference on Linguistics WECOL 2019 and
defended scientific research 'Spanish Language Influence on English Language and Vice Versa'
at California State University, Fresno, CA, United States.
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Abstract
The United States of America is a super state in the world, which supports other countries to
protect human rights, build international relations, avoid gender discrimination and achieve
economic development. Surprisingly, a country where more than 50 percent of population is
woman has never elected a female president. This issue constantly draws attention because from
the first presidential elections in 1789 to present, Americans have being distrusted to woman
candidate. The first reason of women’s underrepresentation in American politics was historical
inequality between men and women (the Anglo-Indian gender frontier). The history of Native
Americans demonstrates a huge division between the roles of males and females. Secondly,
after the foundation of the US Constitution, legal gender discrimination took place. For
example, founder women were excluded from the list of Founding Fathers. Thirdly, men are
more interested in politics than women and this is fundamental reason of women’s
underrepresentation in politics. The level of political ambition is important for running for
office - men tend to have it women do not. The fourth reason is that Americans still are not
ready to elect a woman for office. Several poll experiments have shown that citizens of the
United States would vote for a qualified woman but they do the opposite in elections. The fifth
reason is that beside official constitutional requirements for president, many other unofficial
requirements exist too (prior political experience, name recognition, party support, adequate
funding and etc.), which complicates running for office especially for a woman candidate.
The aim of this paper is to introduce fundamental reasons, why the United States has not elected
a female president during 231 years, when women can perform as well as men in running for
office. The paper includes five parts: introduction, observations, findings, conclusion and
bibliography. In findings, with qualitative and quantitative research methods, primary and
secondary documents are analyzed and several tendencies are identified: exclusion of women
from the list of Founding Fathers, the use of masculine pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’ in the US
Constitution, extension of the deadline of ERA’s ratification and pregnancy discrimination,
which still remains impeding factor for American women.
Key words USA, woman, Constitution, inequality, AERA, 19th Amendment
Word count 5441
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Introduction
The United States of America is a federal system of government, in which fifty individual states
are represented with their own legal autonomy and political significance. All of these states are
sharing authority and functions with the central government, called the federal government
(Vile, M., J., C. 2007: 3). The United States’ political formation is a two-party system’s classic
example. Major parties are Republicans and Democrats, other factions are struggling for power
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 June 2016). Democrats and Republicans dominate the scene and
they have not any serious rivals (Vile, M., J., C. 2007:45). United States of America is the third
most populous country in the world, after China (1.39 billion) and India (1.31billion).
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2019 estimated population of the United States was
329,450,000 (World Population Review, 11 June 2019). In 7 February 2020, at 22:45, the
population of the United States was 330,240,188 (Worldometers, 7 February 2020). As for
demographic trends by gender, in 2020, there are 50.5% of females and 49.5% of males in the
United States and the sex ratio is 0.98 (Worldometers, 7 February 2020). In 2016, when
presidential elections took place between male and female candidates, Donald J.Trump and
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the population of the United States was 323,070,000 and demographic
trend by sex was 159,090,000 (49.2%) males and 163,980,000 (50.8%) females (Statista, 7
February 2020). The first presidential election in the United States took place in 1789, after
which George Washington became the first president and had kept his position until 1797, when
vice president, John Adams, became the second president of the United States (Vile, M., J., C.
2007: 303). From the first presidential elections to 2020, the United States has changed 45
presidents (The White House, 9 February 2020) but it has never elected a female president
during 231 years. The first woman who ran for United States President in 1872 was Victoria
Claflin Woodhull. She was the candidate of the Equal Rights Party. Belva Ann Bennett
Lockwood was the second woman who ran for presidency between 1884 -1888, under the
banner of the Equal Rights Party. Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman who was
nominated for presidency by a major party, Republicans, in 1964. She removed herself from
contention after the results of the first ballot. Shirley Anita Chisholm was the first African
American woman nominated for the United States President by a major party in 1972. Also, she
was the first African American woman to serve in Congress. Patsy Takemoto Mink was the
first woman of color to serve in the Congress. She ran as an anti-war candidate in the Oregon
5
Democratic presidential primary in 1972. Ellen McCormack ran for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1976. Sonia Johnson ran for presidency from the Citizens Party in 1980. Patricia
S. Schroeder, a Democrat ran for the nomination of presidency in 1988, but dropped out before
the primaries. Lenora Fulani, who was the candidate of New Alliance Party, ran for presidency
twice, between 1988 –1992. Elizabeth Hanford Dole was nominated by Republicans for 2000s
Presidential Elections. Carol Moseley Braun was among ten Democrats who were seeking the
2004 presidential nomination. Michele Bachman was a candidate of Republicans for the
nomination of president in 2012 but she was dropped from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Jill
Stein was a Green Party nominee for presidency in 2012 and in 2016. Hillary Rodham Clinton
was nominated by Democrats for presidency in 2008, but she lost to Senator Barack Obama. In
2016, Clinton became the first woman who was a major party’s nominee for president. Carla
Fiorina was the only woman running for the Republican nomination in 2016. After Iowa
caucuses and New Hampshire primary she withdrew. In 2020, there were six women candidates
who ran for the nominee of the president in primaries: Tulsi Gabbard, Kristen Gillibrand,
Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson and Amy Klobuchar (Center for
American Women and Politics, 9 February 2020). Current representation of women in the US
political fields is still experiencing problems. For example, according to the Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU), which suggests information about the numbers of women in countries’ national
parliaments and is in close co-operation with the United Nations, the United States is on the
82th place from 193 countries with 23.43% of women’s representation in lower or single House
and upper chamber. This ranking is based on data, which dates 1st January 2020. Top ten
countries are: Rwanda (61.25%), Cuba (53.22%), Bolivia (53.08%), United Arab Emirates UAE
(50%), Mexico (48.2%), Nicaragua (47.25%), Sweden (46.99%), Grenada (46.67%), Andorra
(46.43%) and South Africa (46.35%) (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 1 January 2020). Center for
American Women and Politics (CAWP) suggests details about the women’s representation in
the United States Congress, in the U.S Senate and in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the CAWP 2019s statistics, in the United States Congress from 535 members only
23.6% (126) is women. 25 (25%) women hold seats in the U.S Senate and 101 (23.2%) serve in
the U.S House of Representatives. Also, in the U.S House of Representatives there are four
women, who are non-voting delegates and represent American Samoa, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. Partially, in the U.S House of Representatives, 88 women are
Democrats and 13 are Republicans. California has sent the biggest number of women to
6
Congress - totally 43 to date, the State of New York is on the second place with 29 women to
date. The State of Vermont, it is the only state which has never sent a woman to either the
House or the Senate (Center for American Women and Politics, 8 February 2020). Low
representation of women in American politics is not new thing and it has historical roots. There
are several reasons which became impeding factors for women to run for office in the USA.
Observations
Historical inequality between men and women (the Anglo-Indian gender frontier) – The
first American women were Native Americans (indigenous people who were residents of
Virginia’s coastal plain, fields, forests and winding rivers, extended from the Chesapeake Bay
shores to the mountains and waterfalls near the present-day Richmond). In Indian (Algonquian)
and English societies differences between men and women were critical to social order.
According to Kathleen M. Brown, a historian of gender and race, 16th and 17th century authors,
who have described the division of activities between men and women, have not captured the
flexibility of gender relations in most English communities. For example, in the early 17th
century, most of women in English society had not right to own property while property was
helpful for political existence and gaining identity. They were overseeing household production
(gardening, dairying, brewing and spinning). English men had property and their main role was
cultivating of grain (Kerber, L., K., Hart, J., S., D., Dayton, C., H., Wu, J., T., C. 2016: 12, 13,
14). The critical situation was between American Indians. James Adair, author of the book ‘The
History of the Native Americans’ and a trader who visited North America in the 18th century to
trade with Indians (Encyclopedia of Alabama, 14 November 2014), has noted that when Indian
man was making his first address to the young woman and intended to marry, she was obliged
by ancient custom to be fitted by him, whether she liked or disliked him. When crime was
proved against woman, her husband was beating her barbarously - cutting off hair, nose and one
of her lips. James Adair has also pointed out that he saw many disfigured females among the
Chikkafah (Chickasaw) Indians during his visit (Adair, J. 1775: 139, 143). Indian women were
cultivating and processing corn, growing squash, peas and beans. Also, they were keeping fires
for cooking and were responsible for providing much cultural materials of daily life (clothing,
jewelry, pots, baskets and bedding). Indian men were clearing grounds of trees and during the
spring and summer months, they were periodically leaving villages for hunting and fishing.
Beliefs in male authority over women and in the primacy of men’s economic activities sustained
7
perceptions of social roles between men and women (Kerber, L., K., Hart, J., S., D., Dayton, C.,
H., Wu, J., T., C. 2016: 12, 13, 14, 15). Historical division of social roles between males and
females contributed the creation of gender stereotypes, which had an important impact on social
and political developments in the future. When there was a historical inequality between men
and women, adoption of the Constitution should had changed this social situation but despite
this, things developed contrary. After the adoption of the U.S Constitution in 1787, males were
granted basic rights, females were not.
Discrimination on the basis of the Constitution – Thirteen original states came together to
draft a constitution in 1787 and they wished to unite for their common defence goals and hoped
that the future Government of the United States would perform certain essential activities (Vile,
M., J., C. 2007: 3). The first constitution, which included many unique articles about the
statehood of the United States, had a significant breakthrough related to the issue of sex and
gender. The first constitution created legal basis for discrimination on the basis of gender.
Currently, we know that all of Founding Fathers of the US Constitution were men such as John
Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, George Mason and George Washington
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 November 2019). Including Founding Fathers, totally 55
delegates are known for drafting the Constitution of the new nation (United States Department
of State Bureau of International Information Programs. 2013: 7). From 55 delegates, 39 signed
the Constitution in 17 September 1787 (The World Book Encyclopedia. 2004: 8). But actually
there were also influential women - Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Mercy Otis Warren,
who made significant contributions in the foundation of the US Constitution but they were
verbally excluded from the list of the US Constitution founders and the Founding Fathers label
obscured their role (Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 November 2019). Situations were not similar
in all states or territories of North America. For example, in 1776, until the creation of the US
Constitution and adoption of the 19th Amendment, New Jersey adopted the constitution which
granted tax-paying women the right to vote but this right was withdrawn in 1807, with the
explanation that women voters had not supported the right candidates. 62 years later, in 1869,
the Territory of Wyoming granted the right to vote to women and in the following year the
Territory of Utah did the same (Inter-American Commission of Women. 1979: 1). Totally, 15
States passed full universal women’s suffrage before the 19th Amendment: Wyoming (1869),
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Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Arizona
(1912), Kansas (1912), Oregon (1912), Montana (1914), Nevada (1914), New York (1917),
Michigan (1918), Oklahoma (1918) and South Dakota (1918). The women’s movement firstly
began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. The first organization, American Equal Rights
Association (AERA), formed in 1866 and it was advocating for suffrage irrespective of race,
color and sex (Congressional Research Service. 2019: 1, 3, 4). Kansas was one of the first states
in the United States, in which the AERA started actual campaign to win woman suffrage. In
1867, AERA held the first-ever referendum on woman suffrage and black suffrage in Kansas
Territory, but referendum ended unsuccessfully (Dudden, F. 2011: 108). Kansas passed the
woman’s suffrage amendment only in 1912 (Congressional Research Service. 2019: 1) and
later, Kansas Republican Nancy Kassebaum became the first woman elected to the United
States Senate in her own right (Lawless, J. L., Fox, R. L. 2012: 1). The AERA split into two
groups – the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), based in New York, and the
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), based in Boston. In 1890, the NWSA and
AWSA reunited and became the National American Woman Suffrage Association
(Congressional Research Service. 2019: 1, 3).
Adoptions of the14th, 15th and 19th Amendments in the US Constitution partly changed the
reality. 14th Amendment is enacted and ratified in 1868. It contains three key clauses: 1)
Anyone born in the United States is a US citizen and anyone residing in a state is a citizen of
that state (this Clause affirmed African Americans as US citizens); 2) The amendment bars
states from depriving anyone, whether a citizen or not, of life, liberty or property, without due
process of law (this is an extension of Bill of Rights); 3) A state may not deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (this equal protection clause became the
major instrument for Supreme Courts to scrutinize state regulations). In 1870, 15th Amendment
was ratified, which barred federal and state governments from infringing on a citizen’s right to
vote (Paletz, D., Owen, D., Cook, T., E. 2012: 186, 187). The 19th Amendment granted women
the right to vote, known as women’s suffrage. It is ratified on August 18, 1920 (Congressional
Research Service. 2019: 1) and following year advanced legislations were made in various
states. After the proclaiming of Federal Amendment, in all states the professions and other
occupations opened to women the same as to men. State Universities and majorities of
educational institutions started admitting of women (Stanton, E., C., Anthony, S., B., Gage, M.,
J., Harper, I., H. 1922: 4).
9
After the 19th Amendment women won the legal right to vote but despite this, barriers to their
participation remained. For example, states made registration difficult and some women were
discouraged from voting by their husbands and friends. Women’s movement was revitalized
between 1960 –1980. They fought for achieving equal rights for women in politics, business,
organized religion and sports. Also, they wanted to work equally for equal pay, to be ordained
as clergy and to give girls the same opportunities as boys to compete in school sports. Women’s
movement achieved many of their goals and Congress passed the Women’s Educational Equity
Act in 1974. Currently, women’s movement no longer exists but there are many organizations
in the United States, working on a wide range of issues related to women (Paletz, D. L., Owen,
D., Cook, T. E. 2012: 350).
Men are more interested in politics than women – Fundamental reason of women’s
underrepresentation in politics is that generally they do not run for office. When we talk about
gender differences in politics it must be pointed out that having of political ambition is
necessary - men tend to have it, women do not. Richard E. Matland, professor at Loyola
University Chicago, points out that when individual makes decision to run for office, then he or
she needs personal ambition and resources. He found from his observations that at the first
stage, there are already more men than women. He identifies three crucial hurdles that women
must pass before entering national parliament: 1) they need to select themselves 2) they need to
be selected as candidates by the parties 3) they need to be selected by voters. Each hurdle
presents its own challenges, especially for women (European Parliament. 2013: 31). There is an
interesting research, conducted by Jennifer Lawless, associate professor of government at
American University, and Richard Fox, associate professor of political science at Loyola
Marymount University. They developed a longitudinal study and investigated at what levels are
men’s and women’s ambitions to run for office, either now or in the future. The first study was
conducted in 2001and totally, 1969 men and 1796 women participated. Based on their answers,
it became evident that women were less than their male counterparts with the aim to run for
office. Across generations, men expressed more comfort than women when they were thinking
about seeking to office. The second stage of longitudinal study was conducted ten years later, in
2011. Totally, 1843 women and 1925 men participated and they were equal in terms of race,
education, household income, profession, political participation and interest in politics. After
the second study it was evident that men’s interest in politics remained unchanged across ten
10
years period, while women’s interest dropped – 18% of women had political ambitions in 2001
and this percentage dropped to 14% in 2011 (Lawless, J. L., Fox, R., L. 2012: 3). Sofie Marien,
an associate professor in comparative and historical political science, on the basis of ‘Analysis
of European Social Survey data 2002, 2004 and 2006 from 14 EU Member States’, explains that
in conventional sense men are far more likely than women to join a political party, to work in a
political organization and to contract government officials. This finding is applicable for all
observed EU member states (European Parliament. 2013: 29). Consequently, there is a huge
similarity between the USA and European countries related to women’s participation in political
activities.
Americans still are not ready to elect a woman for office – It is paradox but citizens of the
United States, in most of polls, express their support to a woman candidate for president but
they do the opposite during elections. Three separate polls, which were made in early 2006,
showed that a large majority of respondents would vote for woman. For example, a CBS News
poll found that 92% of respondents were willing to vote for a qualified woman candidate. A
Hearst/Siena College Research Institute poll found 79% of respondents, who said that they
would elect woman for president. According to the California Filed Poll, 69% of respondents
stated that the United States was ready for a woman president. But the CBS poll, conducted in
February 2006, showed an interesting disconnect among the views of the respondents – 92%
said that they would vote for a qualified woman, while only 55% believed that the United States
was ready for it (Han, L. C., Heldman, C. 2007: 3, 4, 5). The 2006s CBS poll made it clear why
the US citizens do not elect woman candidate - they accept qualified women for president but
do not give them a chance to show what they can do. Americans are not ready to elect a woman
and this fact can be related to other factors outlined above. Latest historical data shows evidence
of this problem - For 1970, women had not occupied almost major elective positions in the
United States political institutions. By 1979, in the United States House of Representatives
women were keeping less than 5% of the seats and only about 10% of state legislative positions
across the country. In 1980, women’s seeking to political institutions increased. In 1990, there
was a huge ascend. In 2010, congressional elections showed decrease in the percentage of
women, who were serving in the United States House of Representatives. For example, in
January 2011, 84% of Congress members were men. Also, men had occupied governor’s
mansions in 44 of the 55 states and they had run city halls in 92 of the 100 largest cities across
the country (Lawless, J. L., Fox, R. L. 2012: 1).
11
Unofficial requirements for presidency – Beside official constitutional requirements, many
other unofficial requirements exist in the electorate, which are very difficult to satisfy especially
for woman candidates. In general, presidential candidates must have characteristics which might
include: prior political experience; name recognition; party support; adequate funding and
fundraising abilities; strong appeal for the base of the party, particularly during primaries and
appeal to independent or swing voters, particularly during the general election; strong
leadership and communication skills. These informal qualifications with factors such as
religion, race and gender, creates difficulties for potential nominees. Also, health, age of the
candidate, family ties and personal relationships, particularly marital status and fidelity - are
important characteristics of the candidate who runs for office. Party affiliation and policy
preferences still remain important influencing factors during elections (Han, L. C., Heldman, C.
2007: 5). Even external support and encouragement of a candidate during elections draw our
attention. Recruitment and encouragement lead many individuals to become candidates and to
run for public office. In order to determine if men and women receive equal external support for
running for office then we can overview the poll experiment, suggested by David Niven in his
work ‘Party Elites and Women Candidates: The Shape of Bias’. During the experiment,
respondents were presented with a list of seven political actors who might have suggested or
encouraged a candidacy: formal actors (party officials, elected officials and non-elected political
activists) and informal actors (friends, spouses, family-members and co-workers). The poll
experiment showed that women were less likely to receive external supports to run for office.
Differences between men and women were critical in terms of political actors – 12% of women
said that they had suggested running for office from official of a political party, while there
were 20% of men who had received the same suggestion. 46% of women had suggested running
for office from their friend or acquaintance and 56% of men had suggested this. There were
73% of women who were contacted by formal political actors to run for office. As for men, they
comprised 81% (Fox, R. 2001: 9, 14). Consequently, unofficial requirements for presidency,
especially external support, can have a huge impact on candidate’s success in running for office.
Unfortunately, current trends show that an advantage of external support tends to be more
towards men than women and this trend is common between formal and informal individuals
who suggest them to run for public office. External Support with other unofficial requirements
create basis for women’s underrepresentation in politics and prevents them from competitive
participation in elections.
12
Findings
The United States has two basic documents: the Declaration of Independence (1776), which
establishes the state as an independent political entity, and the Constitution (1789), which forms
the foundations of the United States federal government and creates basic structure for it. The
United States Constitution is the longest lasting (over two centuries old) and one of the shortest
(Jordan, Libya and Iceland have the shortest constitutions) in the world. It has 7 articles and 27
amendments (Darlington, R. 6 February 2020). Original Constitution of the United States had
included neither Equal Protection Clause nor the right to vote for women. Several issues must
be highlighted related to the US Constitution. First of all, as it is pointed out in observations,
women had participated in the foundation of the US Constitution but their names are still
excluded from the list of the Founding Fathers. Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Mercy Otis
Warren made significant contributions in the foundation of the US Constitution (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 13 November 2019). Moreover, grammatical forms of the 1789s US Constitution
was openly discriminative and sexist. Language is one of the most powerful tools of sexism and
discrimination and the use of grammatical masculine forms in job advertising can lead to male
bias in job applications (Rubini, M., Menegatti, M. 2014: 5). The Constitution of the United
States includes several articles in which only masculine forms are used. For example, Section 2
of Article I, which consists of competences about the Representatives of the House, suggests
that ‘No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five
Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be
an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen’ (The World Book Encyclopedia. 2004:
19). The same masculine form is used in Section 3 of Article I, which determines competences
for senators. ‘No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty
Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be
an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen’ (The World Book Encyclopedia. 2004:
20). Also, Section 1 of Article II, stands on the same tendency – ‘The President shall, at stated
Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor
diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive
within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them’ (The World
Book Encyclopedia. 2004: 26). The use of masculine pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’ significantly
defines historical divisions between men and women in the United States and shows how far the
women were from the political participation.
13
Currently, masculine pronouns still exist in the US Constitution and question arises if woman is
able or not to become President of the United States. Of course, framers of the Constitution had
not thought that one day woman might be elected as president because they did not even think
that women needed the right to vote. Consequently, the use of masculine pronouns at that time
was not surprise. But as for keeping of masculine pronouns in the current constitution, several
arguments must be noted, related to it. Firstly, English language lacks a gender-neutral pronoun
and this is fortunate for both women and the Constitution. For women it means that there is little
doubt that woman could be president. As for the Constitution, it avoids necessity of
amendments in the Constitution just to correct this problem. Secondly, on the basis of the non-
existence of gender-neutral pronouns in English language, Section 2 and Section 3 of Article I
in the US Constitution, which refer to both Representatives and Senators with the masculine
pronoun, prove that there is no effort to keep women out of the Congress (Mount, S. 16 August
2010).
Congress approved Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972 and original deadline for states to
ratify ERA, was 1979. But in 1978, when 6 years had passed after the ERA’s adoption,
President Jimmy Carter extended the deadline until 1982. Consequently, transformation to equal
rights started after ten years of its adoption. Some constitutional experts think that this period
was too late. Many ERA proponents argue that the deadline was irrelevant. For example, the
27th Amendment, which prohibits changes to the salaries of congressional legislators, was
ratified in 1992 – after 203 years of its introduction (Rohlinger, D. 13 December 2018).
Dragging of the time and interruption of ratification to grant women equal rights, procrastinated
the establishment of equitable environment for men and women. In 1978, the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act (PDA) was adopted in the United States and it was the first federal law to
protect pregnant workers. Unfortunately, this type of sex discrimination still exists and has
serious influences on stumbling women in the workplace. The PDA changed Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it prohibited denying of women from job opportunities because of
the fact that they are, or might become pregnant. The PDA has combated pregnancy
discrimination in significant ways but it has limitations. For example, it applies only to
employers with 15 or more employees. Moreover, some courts have ruled that employers are
not required to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers (National Partnership
for Women & Families. 2016: 1). There were several problems related to the courts in the
United States on the basis of sex discrimination. For example, in the case of Geduldig v. Aiello
14
(1974) the court concluded that pregnancy discrimination is not sex discrimination under the
Equal Protection Clause. Also, in the case of General Electric Company v. Gilbert (1976), the
court concluded that an employer’s failure to cover pregnancy-related disabilities in the
disability plan did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Araiza, W., D. 2009:
478). Pregnancy discrimination still creates serious consequences for women and their families.
According to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), between fiscal
years of 2011 – 2015, female workers reported pregnancy discrimination in every industry. For
example, in health care and social assistance industry, in which 78.5% of workers were female,
24.0% charges of pregnancy discrimination were reported. In the whole, industries, in which
women were stumbled because of their pregnancy are: health care and social assistance, retail
trade, manufacturing, educational services, accommodation and food services, professional and
food services, finance and insurance, management of companies and enterprises and other
services (National Partnership for Women & Families. 2016: 1, 2). Discrimination of women on
the basis of pregnancy is the coercion of female workers to choose either a job or a family. This
is division because male workers do not face this type of discrimination when their wives are or
might become pregnant. According to the gender role theory, division of labor and the structure
of hierarchy in a society in which women and men have historically held different social roles,
arise gender differences (Rubini, M., Menegatti, M. 2014: 3).
Conclusion
Will America ever have a woman president? – Historical inequality, discrimination, unofficial
requirements and other obstacles had huge impact on women’s underrepresentation in American
politics but unlike historical past, today more women are represented in the United States’
political field, although for progress more is needed. In 2020s presidential campaigns six
women were participating – Tulsi Gabbard, Kristen Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth
Warren, Marianne Williamson and Amy Klobuchar, but they lost. Americans still gave
advantage to male candidate (USA Today, 5 March 2020). Both parties, Democrats and
Republicans, claim that their party will get the first women into the White House. Nina Turner,
former Ohio State senator explains that a woman president will be elected within the next 20
years. Liesl Hickey, Republican strategist notes that Republicans are better positioned to elect a
woman first and she believes the 2024 election could be the year of a Republican woman
president (Politico, 11 April 2017).
15
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Enforce the Equal Protection Clause. Brooklyn Law School. Pg: 478.
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