Women's rights and presidential politics

Clinton or Rice could make history as the first female president

AMERICA WOULD BE AN INTERESTING nation if Hillary Clinton wins the democratic nomination and if first lady Laura Bush’s wish of having U.S. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice to be the Republican candidate for 2008 presidential race comes to pass.

This possibility comes at a time when the world is witnessing a trend of increasing numbers of women in political leadership, in a decade that has seen the largest number of women elected president.

Currently there are at about 10 female presidents around the world, six of them elected at the beginning of the millennium and three of them elected less than six months ago.

Virtually every continent has seen the emergence of women leaders and heads of state.

In November last year, underdog Angela Merkel ended Gerhard Schroeder’s eight-year rule in Germany becoming the first woman chancellor in the country’s history.

In Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeated world soccer star and millionaire George Weah, making her the first elected woman president in Africa.

On March 11, Chile inaugurated Michelle Bachelet, a woman president, in a ceremony witnessed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and harsh U.S. critic Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bachelet became the first woman elected president in Chile and only the third in Latin America.

In January, Finland re-elected Tarja Halonen for a second six-year term, keeping her in the rare class of women presidents in Europe, a position she shares with her Irish counterpart Mary McAleese, the first woman president to have succeeded another in history.

In Asia, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo is in her fifth year as president. Arroyo is Philippines’ second woman president after Corazon Aquino, who was also the first woman president in Asia.

But despite women’s rise in politics around the world, the thought of a woman president still evokes doubtful thoughts among people. Maybe that explains why out of 192 countries in the world, there have only been 36 women heads of states and 37 prime ministers since the beginning of the 20th century.

The dismal number includes acting women presidents, some whose rule lasted less than a week and several co-captain regents of the little known San Marino Island, an enclave of Italy, which elects two co-captain regents as heads to state every six months.

The increase in the number of women in American politics has been slow but steady.

According to the Center of American Women in Politics Web site, women form more than 15 percent of the current Congress, the highest percentage in U.S. history. There are also eight women governors and 15 lieutenant governors.

But if women wanted to take charge of the nation, nothing would stop them. According to the 2000 census, women form 51 percent of the U.S. population and there are more adult women than men.

It is therefore conceivable to think of a woman president in America in the 2008 presidential election if women were to vote as a block for a female candidate. The thought has crossed many minds.

In his book, “Condi vs, Hillary,” former Clinton political consultant turned-nemesis Dick Morris says only Rice can defeat Clinton in the 2008 presidential race, creating a suggestion of not one but two women presidential candidates. The thought is simplistic and somewhat unrealistic, especially since Rice has declared she has no intentions of running for president.

There is very little chance of such a possibility but if it were to happen and a woman became the president of the most powerful nation in the world, that would easily be the pinnacle of the women’s rights movement.

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