There are a million and one reasons why Hillary Clinton didn’t win the presidential election, but a simple one is that a lot of people didn’t want a woman to be president. Society often views women as irrational, moody, and impulsive. A major concern when Hillary Clinton was running for president was the fear that she would let her emotions get the best of her. She’d be in a position where she could push the “red button” and decide the fate of the world in a matter of seconds. People thought, who knows what would happen with a woman in the White House?
The reasoning behind the institutionalized sexism that has kept women from the Oval Office isn’t usually explained, but the idiotic stereotypes mostly have to do with emotion. Women are seen as too emotional to be trusted with the highest office in the free world. They’ll make “rash decisions,” possibly while PMSing. They could be signing executive orders, and conducting foreign policy, condemning private offices and individuals guided by no discernible metric beyond the flow of hormones. There was the contrary opinion though, that Clinton would have made a great president because she had already gone through menopause.
Here’s the ironic part: All of the nonsense behind the misogynistic fear of a female president has been coming to fruition in Donald Trump’s first weeks in office. Worried that a woman in the White House would have careening mood swings often spurred by catty arguments? Look no further than Trump’s Twitter feed. He’s up into the wee hours of the night attacking the people and organizations who think to challenge him. Would society have expected a man to be rashly attacking people on social media? Or impulsively threatening to put the United States into a nuclear war? Probably not.
Sexism defines a woman’s existence with everything they do. On a more personal level, it holds back more than 50 percent of the population from equal pay, reproductive rights, and physical safety. The deep, pervasive nature of sexist ideas is the reason the United States have never had a female president, and indoctrinated into our minds is the idea that that menstrual cycles cast women outside the realm of reason and common sense. “Outside the realm of reason and common sense” sounds like a pretty accurate descriptor of Trump’s first weeks in office.
It’s ridiculous that women running for office must constantly defend themselves simply for being women. They’re constantly judged for their appearance where men are rarely judged by the color of the suit they wear. Women are berated with questions regarding their capacity to hold a position of power and also take care of their children. What will happen if a woman’s cramps are bad one day? Well, she’ll do what she always does and act as if it’s any other day.
The notion that Clinton (or any woman) would be weak, or irrational, or guided by her hormones, was always sexist nonsense. Yet now as a consequence of too many people buying into that nonsense, we have a a president who actually has problems with controlling his impulses and who allows his emotions to overrule reason.