Back in the day, some people thought that women playing baseball, a classic men-only sport, was unorthodox and unimaginable. However, 1992’s film “A League of Their Own,” starring Geena Davis, is a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), a league created to help disassemble the gender boundaries created by American society. So if women taking part in a man’s sport is now attainable, what is the reality of a woman being elected to a typical male’s office - the office of the President of the United States?
This reality is brought to the forefront in the 2008 Presidential Elections as former First Lady and Senator of New York, Hillary Clinton, is campaigning to be the first female Democratic presidential candidate as well as potentially the first female commander in chief. Although having Clinton run as the first female candidate is being spoken of as a historic event, the truth is that women before Clinton have challenged the status quo and were met, unfortunately, with little success.
As “The Herald” writer Alison Rowat comments in her May 2006 piece, the first challenge to the “electoral equivalent of Everest” took place in 1872, when Victoria Chaflin Woodhull, a stockbroker and publisher, ran in order to publicize the cause of equal rights. Since her, the closest anyone has come to the top job is Geraldine Ferraro and her 1984 bid for the vice-presidency.
Unfortunately, the closest we have come to a female commander in chief was on television. With its pilot episode airing in September of 2005, ABC’s television series “Commander in Chief” attempted to break the conception that women could not be front-runners in the political realm. The solution was a presidential administration in the control of Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis), the first female President of the United States. However, after only one season of 18 episodes, the show was canceled officially on May 13, 2006 due to various reasons, including low viewer ratings.
Taking the premise of the popular TV series “The West Wing” one step farther, “Commander” is built on the differing opinions as to the ability of a woman to lead a powerful nation, especially in times of crisis. “If Moses had been a woman, leading the Jews out of Egypt, she'd have stopped to ask for directions. They would've found Israel within a week” is the response of former First Lady Grace Bridges to Allen’s acceptance of the presidency but such favor is not found with a majority of her predominantly male staff who only encourage her resignation.
Geena Davis’ physical demeanor, standing at 6 feet tall with high cheek bones, creates a commanding presence fit for the leader of the United States, and even the most powerful leader of the world. Such a presence earned her several award nominations, including winning the Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Drama Series” in 2006.
Going against the wishes of an incapacitated and dying president, and of her entire party, Allen takes over the nation's highest office and becomes the first female commander-in-chief. In the process, she finds herself endlessly at odds with her skeptical, largely male White House staff, and is forever sparring with Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton, played by a wonderfully reptilian Donald Sutherland. It is not until towards the middle of the series that Allen begins to earn the respect of her staff in her efforts to deal with a crisis of international proportions and her leadership is put to the test as the country faces the threat of a possible nuclear war. But her careful and strategic planning earn her respect and even the Speaker of the House looks upon her with admiration, though now worried as she poses a competition for him in the next election.
President and co-founder of The White House Project (a foundation adamant in the electing of a female candidate to office), Marie Wilson writes that “female heads of state are not a 21st-century invention. For years, we have seen some women - Margaret Thatcher in England, Indira Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and Angela Merkel in Germany - ascend through political dynasties, monarchies or the parliamentary system.” These women have broken barriers and often have been inspirational leaders, but they are among an extremely small and elite group. Only 11 of the 193 nations have a woman in the top position and the glaring omission from this list is the United States, indisputably the world's leading democracy.
Davis' Mackenzie Allen was able to gain the respect of the speaker of the house through her decisive leadership skills. In other parts of the world, as mentioned above, some women have already accomplished this feat and "Commander in Chief" was intended to reveal the level of acceptance of a female leader here in the States.
Interestingly, according to a Roper Public Affairs poll in September of 2005, nearly 80 percent of Americans were ready for a female commander in chief. As the public’s perception of women in non-traditional roles shifts, this new mark of acceptance probably owes a great deal to the visible female national security leaders of the Clinton and Bush administrations, with both Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright serving as secretaries of state. However, based on the low viewer ratings and the consequential cancellation of “Commander,” this acceptance was not high enough to sustain a second presidential term for Allen.
As Gloria Steinem wrote in her article “Women are never front-runners” in January of 2008, “gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House.” She goes on to quote results from one study by saying that this country “polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.” In a USA Today interview, former Colorado congresswoman Pat Schroeder calls the White House “the ultimate tree house with a ‘No Girls Allowed’ sign on it.” There is an obvious gender disparity in the political field and women are not elected to political offices as much as men, despite having similar credentials. In the midst of the current presidential race for the Democratic candidate, it is a clear battle between a woman and a black man – is America ready for either candidate?
Hollywood loves to play with the big "what ifs" of American life, including the "what if" of a female president. There is an interest in the idea of a woman leading the United States, as indicated by the initial high response of “Commander,” but this interest cannot be sustained and the attention dies out. America's president is not just a head of state but a symbol of national identity. This is why the possibility of the commander in-chief being female is such a challenge to Americans.
But the people are still fascinated with the idea because the position of such a leader has been pretty much an eight-year monarchy with men as the only candidates. Having a female take the lead would require a new self-image for the American people, one that embodies defining 21st-century leadership and the true meaning of a democratic nation.
1 comment:
stellar. well done!
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