New book explores why America hasn’t had a female president
Women face the challenge of breaking down the “imagination barrier” of others believing they can be president, says the author of a new book.
Book cover of "Electable: Why America Hasn't Put a Woman in the White House... Yet" by Ali Vitali.
Although women now have the right to vote, and participate in politics at much higher rates than they did decades ago, America’s politics are still far from a state of gender parity. Women make up just 27% of the House of Representatives and 24% of the Senate. While we’ve had women run for president several times, and in increasing numbers, our politics are still so male-dominated that no woman has ever been elected to the nation’s highest office.
There are many double standards that flood our politics. Woman politicians are often not allowed to be angry, are not allowed to cry and are not allowed to show a range of emotion that men in similar spaces are almost never criticized for displaying.
“We now have enough women waiting in the wings that I highly doubt that we’re going to wait too many election cycles going forward where there’s not at least one woman running.” — Ali Vitali, author.
Listen: Why women are often excluded from politics or denigrated within the political arena.
Guest
Ali Vitali is the capitol hill correspondent for NBC News. She recently wrote the book,“Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House… Yet.”
“We now have enough women waiting in the wings that I highly doubt that we’re going to wait too many election cycles going forward where there’s not at least one woman running,” says Vitali.
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