By Moira Warburton
(Reuters) – For the second time in U.S. historical past, a serious occasion nominated a girl for president and for the second time she misplaced. Democrat Kamala Harris’ election loss to Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday adopted Hillary Clinton’s loss to him in 2016.
Causes for Harris’ loss have been many – an Edison Analysis exit ballot confirmed deep issues in regards to the state of the economic system and folks’s monetary state of affairs was a driving issue.
However sexism persists. An October Reuters/Ipsos ballot discovered a 55% majority of registered voters stated sexism was a serious downside within the U.S., whereas 15% stated they might not be comfy voting for a feminine president.
Ladies head governments in 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, though the variety of international locations which have had feminine leaders has risen steadily since 1990.
In the US, 51% of the inhabitants are ladies and 42% are folks of colour, in accordance with the U.S. Census. American ladies path males by way of pay and illustration in authorities and administration.
CONGRESS, GOVERNORS
The 2022-24 U.S. Congress was 28% ladies, the best share in historical past, and 25% of lawmakers recognized as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native or multiracial, in accordance with Pew Analysis Middle.
Of the 143 ladies within the 117th Congress, 49, or 34.3%, are ladies of colour, the Middle for American Ladies and Politics stated.
In 1975, Ella Grasso grew to become the primary of 49 ladies elected governor of U.S. states, stated the Middle for American Ladies and Politics. Three ladies of colour – SuSana Martinez and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, each of whom are Hispanic, and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, an Indian American – have served as governors, however no Black ladies.
WHITE HOUSE OCCUPANTS
Each certainly one of America’s presidents has been male. Democratic former President Barack Obama was the primary Black man elected to the workplace in 2008.
If elected, Harris would have been the primary girl and first girl of colour to function president.
Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, was the primary girl to run as a serious occasion’s nominee for president in 2016; she gained the favored vote however misplaced the Electoral Faculty to Trump.
Harris was the primary girl vp, having taken workplace in 2021 with President Joe Biden. Geraldine Anne Ferraro, a Democrat, was the primary girl nominated by a serious occasion for vp in 1984.
PAY GAP
The progress in direction of closing the gender pay hole within the twentieth century slowed within the twenty first century. In 1982, ladies made 65 cents for each greenback males made; by 2002 that determine was as much as 80 cents, in accordance with Pew Analysis Middle.
In 2023, ladies working fulltime year-round jobs made 84 cents for each man’s greenback, the Division of Labor experiences. Black ladies made 69 cents for each white males’s greenback.
EDUCATION DISPARITIES
Ladies have been extra prone to get hold of a bachelor’s diploma than males since 1981, in accordance with the Nationwide Middle for Schooling Research. In 2019, ladies started making up a majority of the college-educated workforce, Pew Analysis Middle discovered, a development that has intensified for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic.
ABORTION RIGHTS
Harris was born in 1964, 4 years after the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration accredited the trendy contraception capsule and 9 years earlier than Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court docket ruling that created federal protections for abortion entry.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court docket eliminated these protections, limiting entry in over half of U.S. states. That makes the US certainly one of 4 international locations globally to cut back authorized entry to abortion care, in accordance with the Middle for Reproductive Rights.
CEOS, BOARDROOMS
Ladies made up 11% of chief executives at Fortune 500 corporations, Pew Analysis present in 2024, and 30% of Fortune 500 board members.
Throughout firm boardrooms, ladies accounted for 34% of all administrators this 12 months, up from 33% final 12 months and 19% in 2014, in accordance with management advisory agency Spencer Stuart.
A 2023 McKinsey examine confirmed that corporations with over 30% ladies executives have been extra prone to outperform corporations with fewer ladies executives or none.
MATERNAL MORTALITY
The U.S. has the best price of maternal deaths of any high-income nation, and over 80% of these deaths are preventable, the Commonwealth Fund reported in 2024.
Black ladies are thrice extra prone to die from pregnancy-related causes than white ladies, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The CDC and well being consultants attribute the inequities to power circumstances corresponding to heart problems but additionally structural racism, implicit bias from healthcare suppliers and lack of entry to high quality healthcare.
