by Gabrielle Wallace/Cronkite News, Arizona Mirror
November 12, 2024
WASHINGTON – Women have led the governments of nearly a third of the countries on Earth as presidents, prime ministers and chancellors. Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat kept the 235-year-old glass ceiling in the United States unbroken.
“It absolutely will happen,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.
Just not yet.
In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in last month as the 66th president and the first woman on that list. Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, held office from 1979 to 1990 – longer than all but six occupants of Downing Street since 1721 when the title was first used.
Angela Merkel led Germany as its first female chancellor from 2005 to 2021, longer than all but two since Otto von Bismarck. Indira Gandhi broke the barrier in India when she became prime minister in 1966, three years before Golda Meir became Israel’s fourth prime minister.
The barrier has been shattered on every continent except Antarctica.
“The U.S. is far behind other nations, unfortunately. I think it will be a slow process,” said Kim Fridkin, an Arizona State University political scientist who studies women in politics, “although women are having more success in gaining office statewide as governors and U.S. senators.”
