In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States. Woodhull, who was known for creating the first woman owned brokerage in the United States, was nominated by the Equal Rights Party; as a third party nominee, she had little chance of winning the presidency.
Twelve years later, Belva Lockwood, another third party candidate, ran a full campaign and travelled around the country.
These women fought hard to win the nomination of their parties. But as third party candidates, they faced a challenge in just getting their names on the ballot.
Realistically, the only way a woman could have a real chance of becoming president would be as the nominee from a major party.
In 1964, Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican, became the first woman to be discussed for nomination of a major party.
In 1972, three different women – Shirley Chisholm, Bella Azbug, and Patsy Mink – unsuccessfully attempted to win the nomination of the Democratic Party.
On June 7, 2016, with the nomination of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, a woman had a real chance of becoming president for the rst time in American history.
Regardless of one’s feelings about Clinton, this was an historically important moment: a woman won the nomination of a major party based on her quali cations, experience, and lifelong service to her country.
Five months and one day later, her campaign ended in the same way that the campaigns of every woman who had run for president before her had: unsuccessfully.
With her loss, and Donald Trump’s victory, the direction of the next four years seems, to
next four years? Only time will tell, but until then, it is important to analyze the way that women in the workforce are treated today.
Cokie Roberts ‘60, longtime ABC anchor, NPR analyst, and New York Times bestselling author, talked about her experience of working before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, when job discrimination based on gender was still legal.
“Up until that point, the help-wanted ads read male or female, white or colored,” Roberts said.“It took a long time for people to understand that it is illegal to say ‘We don’t hire women to do that.’ People said that all the time.”
The 1964 law and others that followed improved women’s rights in the workplace, but there are still many areas where women continue to be treated differently than men.
According to a recent study by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the U.S. is one of only nine countries in the world to offer no federally mandated paid maternity leave. Of these nine countries, the U.S. is the only one with an advanced economy. There are thirty-six countries, including Mongolia, Cuba, and Korea, that offer one year or more of maternity leave.
Some American women feel pressure to continue working from home directly after having a baby to prove that they intend to return from maternity leave.
Regina Gannon ‘86, a nance executive at BlackRock Solutions, an investment and risk management rm, said she felt pressure to prove her commitment to her job shortly after having a child.
“It was really hard to be a working mom because I think a lot of times, people assumed I wasn’t coming back and I wasn’t committed,” said Gannon. “They didn’t really give me the time and the space when I was on maternity leave.” Corinne Cannon ‘96, founder and operator of the D.C. Diaper Bank, expressed frustration at her previous boss’s
unwillingness to work with her hectic schedule as a new mother. At the time, Cannon worked as a curriculum
writer, something that she easily could have done from home on most days.
In 2015, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that requires government agencies to grant six weeks of paid parental leave to new mothers and fathers. Other cities and states have taken similar initiatives for government employees; some private businesses, such as M&T Bank and Net ix, have exceeded this, granting 12 and 52
weeks, respectively.
In addition to limited maternity leave, women in the U.S. are only paid 80 cents for every
dollar that a man makes, according to the American Association of University Women. The pay gap can be even worse depending on location, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability.
According to Cannon, women in the workforce who express concern about maternity leave or the gender wage gap often have their fears dismissed.
“One of the ways that we try to remove power from women is to say, “Well you seem very mad about this,” or “You seem very upset about this,” when there are legitimate reasons to be upset about what’s going on,” said Cannon.
Despite the challenges that women in the workforce face, some believe that women also bring much to the table.
“Women in the workforce are more strategic…and try to solve problems more,” Gannon said.“I think men sometimes just want to get in, make a deal and bring in money. They aren’t really concerned with structurally [whether they] are… xing problems and getting to the root causes of things.” (Continued on page 3)
some, increasingly Hillary Clinton shakes hands at a campaign event this fall. In November, Clinton, who was the rst female presidential candidate from a major party, lost her uncertain, especiallyrun for the White House.
for women.
Many of Donald Trump’s comments have been criticized as sexist or misogynistic.
In July, Trump criticized Ghazala Khan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. While her husband spoke at the Democratic convention, Ghazala Khan stood silently next to him. Trump said of her, “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”
After the Republican primary debate on August 4 in which moderator, Megyn Kelly of Fox News, repeatedly asked about Trump’s sexist comments, he called Kelly “a bimbo” on Twitter.
In October, news broke of an Access Hollywood tape in which Trump talked about sexually grabbing women without their consent.
Maggie Haberman of The New York Times’s reported that when Nancy Pelosi called Trump post-election and raised women’s and children’s issues, Trump handed the phone to his daughter, Ivanka, instead of speaking to these issues himself.
Donald Trump has added a maternity leave plan to his website. According to the Trump website, his plan includes six weeks of “paid leave to new mothers before returning to work.” Trump also plans to incentivize companies to provide childcare at the workplace.
In terms of equal pay and the wage gap, Donald Trump has no plan available on his website. The Trump campaign has repeatedly said that Mr. Trump believes in “equal pay for equal work,” but Trump himself has expressed concerns about equal pay leading “into a socialist society.” He has said “you’re going to make the same if you do as good a job,” but, according to Time, he believes it would be dif cult to address with policy.
These are the facts. But what does that mean for how women will be treated in the next four years? Only time will tell, but until then, it is important to analyze the way that women in the workforce are treated today.
Cokie Roberts ‘60, longtime ABC anchor, NPR analyst, and New York Times bestselling author, talked about her experience of working before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, when job discrimination based on gender was still legal.
“Up until that point, the help-wanted ads read male or female, white or colored,” Roberts said.“It took a long time for people to understand that it is illegal to say ‘We don’t hire women to do that.’ People said that all the time.”
The 1964 law and others that followed improved women’s rights in the workplace, but there are still many areas where women continue to be treated differently than men.
According to a recent study by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the U.S. is one of only nine countries in the world to offer no federally mandated paid maternity leave. Of these nine countries, the U.S. is the only one with an advanced economy. There are thirty-six countries, including Mongolia, Cuba, and Korea, that offer one year or more of maternity leave.
Some American women feel pressure to continue working from home directly after having a baby to prove that they intend to return from maternity leave.
Regina Gannon ‘86, a nance executive at BlackRock Solutions, an investment and risk management rm, said she felt pressure to prove her commitment to her job shortly after having a child.
“It was really hard to be a working mom because I think a lot of times, people assumed I wasn’t coming back and I wasn’t committed,” said Gannon. “They didn’t really give me the time and the space when I was on
maternity leave.” Corinne Cannon
‘96, founder and operator of the D.C. Diaper Bank, expressed frustration
at her previous boss’s
unwillingness to work with her hectic schedule as a new mother. At the time, Cannon worked as a curriculum
writer, something that she easily could have done from home on most days.
In 2015, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that requires government agencies to grant six weeks of paid parental leave to new mothers and fathers. Other cities and states have taken similar initiatives for government employees; some private businesses, such as M&T Bank and Net ix, have exceeded this, granting 12 and 52
weeks, respectively.
In addition to limited maternity leave, women in the U.S. are only paid 80 cents for every
dollar that a man makes, according to the American Association of University Women. The pay gap can be even worse depending on location, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability.
According to Cannon, women in the workforce who express concern about maternity leave or the gender wage gap often have their fears dismissed.
“One of the ways that we try to remove power from women is to say, “Well you seem very mad about this,” or “You seem very upset about this,” when there are legitimate reasons to be upset about what’s going on,” said Cannon.
Despite the challenges that women in the workforce face, some believe that women also bring much to the table.
“Women in the workforce are more strategic…and try to solve problems more,” Gannon said.“I think men sometimes just want to get in, make a deal and bring in money. They aren’t really concerned with structurally [whether they] are… xing problems and getting to the root causes of things.”
According to a study by Harvard Business School, women in leadership roles “are less hierarchical, more cooperative and collaborative, and more oriented to enhancing others’ self-worth.” This difference in leadership styles between men and women is important, especially in a world where men and women are not represented equally in government or business. Women only
make up 19.4 percent of Congress, and they only hold 14.2 percent of the top ve leadership positions at S&P 500 companies, according to CNN. Women hold just twenty-four out of 500 – 4.8 percent – S&P CEO jobs.
In male dominated elds, such as business and politics, it can be very hard for women to move up in the ranks. Women who start off in these elds often lack female mentors.
“I have bene tted from the network of the senior women ahead of me and I really try to pay that back and help the next generation of women,” Gannon said. “I think that there are some things that women do beyond the technical work and think about more career development and people.”
Gannon has volunteered as a mentor for women nance students at her alma mater, Georgetown. In addition to this, she mentored younger women at Merill Lynch during her time there. Despite the fact that women face unique challenges in the workforce, there have been positive strides. In the 2016 elections, women all across the country made history.
Ilhan Omar made history as the rst Somali-American elected of cial. She was elected to the Minnesota House and will begin her term this January.
Tammy Duckworth of Illinois won her Senate race against incumbent Mark Kirk. Duckworth is half Thai and is a veteran who lost both her legs in Iraq.
Kamala Harris became the rst person of Indian descent elected as Senator from California. Duckworth and Harris are some of the rst biracial Americans to serve in the Senate.
Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada became the rst Hispanic woman to serve in the senate.
The New Hampshire Senate race featured two women, Kelly Ayotte and Maggie Hassan, at the top of the ticket.
In addition to these senate seats, eight new women won elections in the House. These women include Stephanie Murphey, the rst Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress, and Pramila Jayapal, an Indian refugee.
Even though a woman lost in the race for the White House, other women still won in state and congressional elections. Strides are being made for higher wages, longer paid parental leave, and more representation – especially from minority women – in Congress.