Are Voters Ready for a Woman in the White House?

As the USA waves goodbye to Michelle Bachmann's presidential bid, Hannah Mudge looks at the hard time politicians have being both accepted by the public and viewed as pro-woman.

"Our country is in very serious trouble and that this might be the last election to turn the nation around before we go down the road to socialism."

It's safe to say she's not my kind of politician. But as Bachmann goes the same way as Sarah Palin, and Hillary Clinton before her, you have to wonder how long it will be before we see a woman in the White House - and whether a "woman-friendly" woman could ever make the grade.

It's been suggested that Bachmann didn't do well in Iowa because voters just aren't ready for a woman president - and a couple of media outlets have quotes from members of the public which seem to support this. It wouldn't be surprising, considering that plenty of right-wing voters, particularly the religious ones, don't really agree that women should be in positions of power. Consider the attitudes towards Palin and Clinton - accusations that the woman who coined the term "Mama Grizzly" was going against her religion if she thought she could run the country. And what about the misogynist nastiness leveled at Hillary (despite the fact that as Secretary of State, she's generally well-respected and admired), while at the same time she received criticism from liberals for not being pro-woman enough?

All in all, women have a hard job truly winning favour with voters. They have to have the right sort of family life - I dread to think what criticism such a woman would come in for if she wasn't a mother. Their views have got to stand up to scrutiny from the Christian right - so they'd better remember everything they've ever said about abortion and gay marriage is going to get picked apart, and that their relationship with their husband is going to be raked over for signs of the wrong person "wearing the trousers". They've got to be ambitious and opinionated, but never come across as too driven or controversial, lest they end up caricatured as a "bitch" or a "harpy". 

After all that, they've got to contend with the seriously anti-woman ideology coming out of the country at present, whether it's "personhood", the "war on contraception" or welfare reform.

Along the way, it's inevitable that they're going to lose some of the "woman-friendly" factor if they want to gain votes. Michele Bachmann raised eyebrows when she admitted her daughters have to wait for boys to call them or ask them on dates, (anything else would constitute the woman taking the lead, of course) and everyone was keen to know just how completely anti-choice she was. Sarah Palin controversially referred to herself as a feminist, igniting a neverending debate in the press and in the blogosphere over whether someone with her record on women's rights was "allowed" to claim the title.

Bachmann once told the public she wanted to be "America's Iron Lady" - a nod to Margaret Thatcher, who was no particular friend to women. At the moment, it's hard to imagine the US making like Brazil, whose first woman president, Dilma Rousseff, made the focus of her 2010 victory speech her commitment to gender equality - and not just because there are plenty of other issues on the US agenda at present. Can you imagine the outcry?

In the past 20 years, the profile of women in politics has come a long way, but it's clear there's still far to go. It's 17 years since Wal-Mart pulled a t-shirt from its stores due to the fact it read "Someday, a woman will be president" and apparently went against the company's "family values". It's not going to happen in 2012, so we'll have to hold out hope for some worthy candidates in the future.

Hannah Mudge writes about all things news and feminism-themed for BitchBuzz. You can also read her blog, We Mixed Our Drinks or follow her tweets as @boudledidge.

Image via dcJohn's Flickr