Last Christmas I had an argument with a right wing, conservative, white, male veteran who was bemoaning that “no one represents people like me anymore, that’s the problem with affirmative action” to which I responded ” I think people like you have control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. What more representation do you need?”

Today there is an article in the NY Times called The Ascent of a Woman about the possibility of having a female president in the United States. The news doesn’t look good and it sums up a few things that any feminist poly sci student could tell you.

1) A lot of female leaders in other countries are part of a dynasty. Their family’s recognition helps voters get past the whole voting for a woman thing. Examples include Indira Gandhi and Corazon Aquino and Benazir Bhutto.

2) While we think that a female leader would be more liberal, the ones that actually get elected are considered unusually tough. Angela Merkel’s father was part of the East German Stazi and Michelle Bachelet of Chile was Defense Minister. Hillary Clinton’s pro-war stance may be an effort to prove she can be just as hawkish as the boys .

3) It is so much easier to get elected in a parliamentary system than a presidential one because it is the entire party that gets voted into office and then the party picks a leader. Once your party is in power passing legislation is a piece of cake compared to the American system.

4) A good pool of women with political experience just doesn’t exist in this country. We are still massively under-represented in the House, Senate and Governors offices.

So Hillary may have some of these credentials- she is a Clinton and she is tough and she is a Senator who has White House experience (as First Lady) But her own party (me included) isn’t really fond of her. Her run to the center appears much more like political pandering than her husband’s centrist acts.

I’m sitting here trying to think of a female politician who I could vote for. My own two senators are out, Patty Murray is kinda inept and Maria Cantwell is also pro-war. Nancy Pelosi did the whole chicken-shit we won’t impeach thing. Madeline Albright is tough and funny, she certainly has the international chops. But she can’t run because she was born outside the US and there is that atrocious quote about the Iraq sanctions (that caused mass starvation in Iraq way before the war resulting in 500,000 Iraqi children dying) “Better 500,000 Iraqis than one American” or something to that effect.

Are there any female politicians you guys would be willing to vote into the White House? And why?