Quite recently, considerable attention has been paid to American women in political activities. In the past several decades, men have played a maximal role in American politics. This is not particularly new and has been seen for many years in the field of politics. However, women have become more involved in the political field, and they have accomplished great political achievements. Traditionally, the US presidential election is very widely followed in the world, especially because of its political and economic stakes at the global level. The 2016 election was no exception to the rule and the interest was even greater than usual, largely because of the context and the violence of the debate. There was the possibility of seeing the first economic and military power of the world governed by a woman, which has never happened before.
Women in America started feminism in the 19th century, the goal was to pass laws that were intended to protect the interests of women. Many years ago, American women have had fewer legal rights and freedom. Women are presented culturally as wives and mothers while men were the workers. Actually, it contributed to limiting their autonomy and membership in the constitutional community by naturalizing their exclusion from civil rights and freedoms. It has thus been accepted as a natural fact that the enjoyment of rights recognized as human rights is denied to adult women. Challenging this exclusion meant disrupting a regime whose men had convinced themselves that it was ethical and universal; Rights claims made by women were quickly judged subversive or destructive. It was up to the women themselves to define the wrongs they had suffered and to construct the philosophical argumentation justifying their demand for equity and equality.
The United States experiences a paradoxical situation with regard to the marble ceiling: for the first time in American history, a woman is the favorite of the presidential elections, while the percentage of women in American politics is quite low compared to other Western countries. In July 2016, Hillary Clinton was nominated as the first female nominee of a major US political party. The moment marked women’s historic achievement in politics. No poll or forecasting tool has foreseen that Donald Trump won the 2016 US election. Before the election, CBS and NY times made a poll to know the enthusiasm of American women voters about having a woman President. The poll was conducted by telephone with 865 women and 956 men. After the poll, the result was positive: 61% of American women were glad of having a female president. CBS reports that: “With Election Day just under eight weeks away, there is a sizable gender gap among likely voters. Universal polls predicted that she won the popular vote, on the contrary, Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the electoral college. In a reversal of an absolutely incredible situation, the New York billionaire beat Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. This leads to myriad problems on some points because Clinton and Trump are regarded as the most unattractive candidate in history. Each candidate has a well-known past composed of both admirable actions and bad behavior. Nonetheless, Americans voted for Trump in spite of his mannerism believing that the alternative was worse. Some commentators claimed that Trump’s win was a victory for racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and other social pathologies.
On one hand, Hillary Clinton had advantages because of her experience as First Lady, Senator of New York, and Secretary of State. She was also accused of bad behavior during her time as First Lady and Secretary of State. Many female politicians wanted to be president, but Hillary Clinton was more than that. She was a front-runner, and her campaign was not only about enriching her personality, but it was about uplifting all women’s status in America. The most important was that the aim of her policies is to improve the status of women of all classes, nationality, sexuality, and race.
On the other hand, Donald Trump was a successful millionaire, famous for his sarcastic and sexist mannerisms. He dared everything like denouncing a rigged system, accused politicians and media of corruption, and proposed to build a wall on the Mexican border which would be paid for by Mexico to prevent immigration. In addition, he wanted to expel 11 million illegals, and prohibit the entry of the territory to Muslims to protect themselves from terrorism. But nothing stopped his ascent. During debates and campaigns, he contradicted himself, changed his mind, showed the limits of his knowledge on many issues, he insulted women, Hispanic voters, and blacks. Again, nothing has been done. National polls have flopped from time to time, but Donald Trump has always managed to turn the corner. Trump has also been accused by a dozen women of stolen kisses and displaced sexual acts, puerile altercations on Twitter, refusing to publish his tax sheets as tradition dictates, and lying countless times. Until November 8, 2016, no one has ever really believed in his victory.
Many studies and analyses have been elaborated to understand the failure of Hillary Clinton. However, most of the previous studies do not really elaborate on the problem of gender equality in politics. Preliminary analyses indicate that such charges are exaggerations at best. The under-representation of American women in politics is explained by historical, cultural, and structural reasons, all of which have to do with the specificities of the American political system. Some may have cited the reasons, but they were not enough to understand the defeat of Clinton. Nevertheless, there are many alternative methods are available for solving these problems.
For this study, it was of interest to investigate the confusing result of the last US presidential election. It also could be fascinating to go deeper into the topic and to give critical thinking in order to evaluate practices and beliefs about gender, which shape the opportunities that women face in politics. The topic also offers perspectives on many topics such as gender, intersectionality, diversity, class, and humanity. It is also important to know the way in which gender plays a critical role in politics. Clinton has always been a powerful politician in the world, but America preferred a male outsider instead of an experienced woman.
The ultimate goal of this research is to explore gender issues based on Hillary Clinton’s defeat during the presidential election by analyzing the controversial result. The specific goals are to investigate her image as a powerful politician, to analyze the results of the American election, to demonstrate the power of sexism during the election, and to understand American culture and its impacts on the result of the election. To address these issues, the following research question will be asked: Why did Hillary Clinton lose the election despite her achievements in American politics? Based on the main research question, the following sub-questions will be addressed: Why should Clinton have won the election? And What can be done to make women more visible in politics? We hypothesized that Hillary Clinton lost the election because of different reasons. The first defeat is due to cultural values: the social representation of women which does not allow them to participate in the public sphere. The second is that sexism led the American people to choose the wrong candidate. The third reason is that many women did not vote for her because she disgraces feminism. The fourth is that male gatekeepers are the obstacles to women in politics, the American system gives more power to men. And finally, the media have destroyed Hillary Clinton’s image with fake news and devaluated her capacity.
This topic is very important because as a gender student, it is crucial to know the evolution of women in politics, especially after hundred years of the movement against women's discrimination. It is also interesting to know the reasons why Clinton would not be the first female president in the most powerful country in the world. Many people even around the world expect Clinton’s victory, obviously, it is also important to know the access of a powerful politician like Clinton and to understand the reasons for her defeat. The nomination of Clinton was a huge improvement for all women because the position of women in the presidency can really change the representation of women. The only way to get stereotypes and sexism out of politics is to get more women in such high political positions.