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HISTORY BECKONS
It should be clear to everyone that no matter what happens on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, when Americans go to the polls to elect a president, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already made history. Mrs. Clinton is the first woman to lead a major political party in her bid to become the first female President of the United States.
It will be a great day for gender equality in the United States and for women globally. Britain now has its second female Prime Minister in the person of Theresa May, who also became the leader of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.
It is a sign that the tremendous barriers faced by women in the United States and all over the world are coming down. As the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”.
Mrs. Clinton’s defeat of her rival Bernie Saunders in the Democratic Presidential primary elections paved the way for her to bid to replace Barack Obama, and become the 45th President of the United States. The Democrats are meeting formally to decide their presidential candidate at their Convention in Philadelphia which is currently underway. It is highly unlikely that the super delegates will switch allegiances at the convention.
Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy was years in the making. She has served as first lady, New York senator and Secretary of State under Barack Obama. In 2008, she came very close to being the Democratic Presidential candidate when she waged a fierce battled against Obama in the primaries. However, after realizing that she could not defeat Obama, Mrs. Clinton suspended her campaign on June 7, 2008 and endorsed Obama. She knew that she could not have shattered the glass ceiling that time, but this time she did and President Obama has endorsed her.
Many of those who voted for her in the primaries, especially women, believe that having a woman as president will be great for America and a historic moment. If Clinton wins the Presidency, it will represent a major change.
With Clinton’s bid for the presidency, the US is on a roll. It has already elected its first black president, Barack Obama, who elevated Mrs. Clinton to Secretary of State, despite their rivalry. Mrs. Clinton has weathered the storm throughout the years. She was in the Situation Room at the White House on the night of the killing of Osama bin Laden, the infamous leader of Al-Qaeda. She was also grilled by Senators for her handling of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which the US Ambassador and other members of the US Embassy were killed. She was also criticized for her use of classified e-mail on her private e-mail server.
Historically, female leaders have had a hard time. Women are 52 percent of the world’s population, yet only 22 percent of all parliamentarians are female, an increase from 11.3 percent in 1995. In the U.S., less than 20 percent of women are in the House of Representatives and fewer are in state and local governments.
Among Mrs. Clinton’s immediate challenges will be to unite the Democrats, given the substantial support Bernie Sanders garnered in the primaries. Even though she seems not to be as trustworthy as Sanders, her knowledge and familiarity with the political system gives her a unique advantage over the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Interestingly, while the United States is yet to have its first female head of state, many countries including Australia, Britain, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India and Israel, among others, have already had theirs. It will be up to Mrs. Clinton, if she wins the Presidency, to prove to Americans and to the world that not having had a lady as the “leader of the free world” was a mistake all along.
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