Is the American Political System Sexist

The recent nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president has raised questions about Americans’ attitudes towards women in positions of political leadership.

The recent debate about America’s possibly sexist political history was sparked by Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s remarks about “childless cat ladies.” Add to that the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s disturbing record of sexual abuse.

— He was convicted of raping a woman although it was in a civil, not criminal, trial.

— Two other women, including his first wife, accused him of rape.

— More than two dozen women have testified he sexually accosted them.

— He is recorded as bragging he could get away with grabbing a woman’s pussy.

And, of course, there are the two porn stars he had sex with even though he was married; and who he had to pay off to try and keep them from making their relationship public. In fairness, it should be noted that former present Bill Clinton also had a history of sexual exploitation, although not as extreme as Trump’s.

Harris is the first woman in American to be elected vice president, but other women were party nominees — Sara Palin for the Republicans in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro for the Democrats in 1984. Hillary Clinton was of course the only previous woman to be nominated by a major party for president, although more than two dozen women have tried,. The Libertarian Party and the Green Party have had female nominees in the past.

The fact is America’s record of putting women in positions of political power is disappointing at best, dismal at worst. Especially compared to many other countries. Here are some facts to consider:

— 59 countries have had women in the highest position of governmental authority.

— 15 of the countries in the world are now led by a woman

— 20 of the 27 members of the European Union had been led before by women

— The 7 other members have had women in the #2 position in their country

— America ranks #71 out of 182 countries in terms of women in national positions

— Women make up half the population but hold a quarter of the elected seats

Meanwhile, Mexico which many say is a male-dominated society just elected its first female president in what is being described as a “historic landslide victory.” Claudia Sheinbaum, who also happens to be Jewish, was the mayor of Mexico City. She is a climate scientist. To make the election even more significant, her main rival was also a woman.

The parallels between Scheinbaum and Harris are stunning. First, of course they are women…duh! But then add, they are —

…women with different ethnic backgrounds than the majority of their country… women who are highly educated… women with highly successful political careers… and not that it matters but women of the same age (62 and 59).

Canada had one woman in its highest office of prime minister. Kim Campbell was nominated and won election after Prime Minister Mulroney resigned. However, she only held that position for less than half a year when her party was voted out of office. She is now part of a group called the Council of Women World Leaders. It was started in America but now has 90 female political leaders from around the world.

Possibly the most famous woman leader in the world is former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Here again there is an interesting coincidence between the two. Merkel was the first woman chancellor in German history while, of course, Harris was the first vice president in U.S. history, (and hopefully the first President). But here’s the twist.

Merkel is working on a memoir that will come out in November, about the time of our general election. The title of the book is Freiheit which is German for Freedom. The Harris campaign has adopted Freedom as the key theme of her election campaign.

Female representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate is only half the actual female population in the United States. The Center for American Women and Politics lays out the history of women political leaders. Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and that was in 1916. It was 80 years later before the first black woman, Carol Mosley Brown, was elected to the Senate. Kamala Harris was the second.

It may be a little surprising that of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, only 17 are headed by women. Over the last half country though, the record is better with a little less than a third of those countries (59) having had women leaders, according to figures compiled by research firm Statista.

It is much more than a little surprising though that America ranks so low compared to countries around the world in terms of overall female representation in political offices. Of the 182 countries measured by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United States ranked 71st. Less than a third (29.4%) of our elected representatives are women. And, again, the female population in the United States is 50.9%.

Only two countries that one would consider “western countries” ranked lower: Ireland and Greece. We were only half a percentage point better than Lithuania, Singapore, Colombia, and incredibly — Iran. The countries of Sierra Leone, Poland, Guinea, and Estonia were just slightly better.

Mexico was ranked the fourth highest while Canada was only slightly better (66th) than the US. The three best were Rwanda (61.3%), Cuba (55.7%) and Nicaragua (53.9%). The three worst were Oman, Tuvalu and Yemen with no female representation.

So, back to the question: Is the American political system sexist or not? Candidly you could make the case either way. Unfortunately, the answer often comes down to people’s political biases as well as their societal and cultural beliefs. The November election may end up being a test of those biases and beliefs.