Will the United States Ever Elect a Woman President?

By when will the U.S. elect a woman to be president?
In the next election................14%
Within the next decade..........23%
Within 10 to 25 years.............35%
In 26 years or more................13%
Never........................................18%

19938 Votes to date

This is a poll that Yahoo! News was running today. I answered the poll realistically, in my mind, and answered within 10 to 25 years. Not that I wouldn't love to see a woman president in the next decade, I just think it will take a little longer, but I definately believe that America will have a female president. Now what really disturbed me about this poll was that 18% of the people polled said never. In my mind I see two reasoning behind this: either they don't want a woman president and voted never in hopes that it won't happen, or they realistically think that America is so closed minded that a woman will never get elected.

Now I'd like to think that in this day and age that equality between the sexes is becoming more of a reality. As a matter of fact, women have been granted suffrage in every country in the world excepting Saudi Arabia, which has just begun to give men, and in the future women, limited vote. Today the only two countries, which never had a female member of government in at least a sub-ministerial position, are Monaco and Saudi Arabia. Even the Vatican has got one Assistant Vice-Minister. In 1999, Sweden became the first country to have more female ministers than male. 11 women and 9 men.

There are 191 members of the United Nations and a few independent states outside. 19 have got female leaders at the moment.

• Of the monarchies, there are reigning Queens in Denmark, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom - and the latter is represented by female Governor Generals in Canada and Saint Lucia, who function as their countries' de-facto Heads of State.
  
• The 6 female Presidents are in Chile, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Liberia and The Philippines.
  
• At the moment there are 7 woman Prime Ministers; in Bangladesh, Germany, Jamaica, New Zealand, Mozambique, South Korea and The Netherlands Antilles.

So what makes America, supposedly the world leader, so backward in electing a female as president?