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

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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

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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

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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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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).

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