Can you believe that no Democratic debate had ever been moderated by women alone? Well, that was true—up until last night. History was made when PBS NewsHours co-hosts Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill hosted Thursday’s Democratic debate.
It may shock you to find out just how few women have actually gotten to moderate debates. While Time reports there were women involved in debates in 1972, 1984 and 1992, that was…well, that was it. Until 2012, when a petition was created that called for the “inclusion of women.”
Woodruff and Ifill both have impressive histories in political journalism, according to International Business Times. Both have moderated vice presidential debates, and have covered elections for years as journalists. They also became the first all-female anchor team on a U.S. network in 2013, when they where appointed the anchors of PBS NewsHour.
But it is not just the Democratic party that is making history; last month Sandra Smith and Trish Regan were the first-all woman team to moderate a GOP debate. And Megyn Kelly has been frequently in the news for her role as a moderator for Fox News, pissing off Donald Trump so much with a question about sexism that he refused to attend the next debate she moderated. It’s about time women took a bigger role in the presidential debates, especially with women taking the debate stage on both sides of the party line—Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nominee and Carly Fiorina for the Republican nominee (though she just dropped out). Let’s keep up the good work, America.