Sexism remains a significant issue in US politics, polls show, while women trail men in pay and representation in government and management.
By Moira Warburton
For the second time in US history, a major party nominated a woman for president and for the second time she lost. Democrat Kamala Harris’ election loss to Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday followed Hillary Clinton’s loss to him in 2016.
Reasons for Harris’ loss were many – an Edison Research exit poll showed deep concerns about the state of the economy and people’s financial situation was a driving factor.
But sexism persists. An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found a 55% majority of registered voters said sexism was a major problem in the US, while 15% said they would not be comfortable voting for a female president.
Women head governments in 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, although the number of countries that have had female leaders has risen steadily since 1990.
In the United States, 51% of the population are women and 42% are people of colour, according to the US Census. American women trail men in terms of pay and representation in government and management.
CONGRESS, GOVERNORS
The 2022-24 US Congress was 28% women, the highest percentage in history, and 25% of lawmakers identified as black, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska native or multiracial, according to Pew Research Center.
Of the 143 women in the 117th Congress, 49, or 34.3%, are women of colour, the Center for American Women and Politics said.
In 1975, Ella Grasso became the first of 49 women elected governor of US states, said the Center for American Women and Politics. Three women of colour – SuSana Martinez and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, both of whom are Hispanic, and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, an Indian American – have served as governors, but no Black women.
WHITE HOUSE OCCUPANTS
Every one of America’s presidents has been male. Democratic former President Barack Obama was the first black man elected to the office in 2008.
If elected, Harris would have been the first woman and first woman of colour to serve as president.
Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, was the first woman to run as a major party’s nominee for president in 2016; she won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Trump.
Harris was the first woman vice president, having taken office in 2021 with President Joe Biden. Geraldine Anne Ferraro, a Democrat, was the first woman nominated by a major party for vice president in 1984.
PAY GAP
The progress towards closing the gender pay gap in the 20th century slowed in the 21st century. In 1982, women made 65 cents for every dollar men made; by 2002 that figure was up to 80 cents, according to Pew Research Center.
In 2023, women working full-time year-round jobs made 84 cents for every man’s dollar, the Department of Labor reports. Black women made 69 cents for every white men’s dollar.
EDUCATION DISPARITIES
Women have been more likely to obtain a Bachelor’s degree than men since 1981, according to the National Center for Education Studies. In 2019, women began making up a majority of the college-educated workforce, Pew Research Center found, a trend that has intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic.
ABORTION RIGHTS
Harris was born in 1964, four years after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the modern birth control pill and nine years before Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that created federal protections for abortion access.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court removed those protections, limiting access in over half of US states. That makes the United States one of four countries globally to reduce legal access to abortion care, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
CEOs, BOARDROOMS
Women made up 11% of chief executives at Fortune 500 companies, Pew Research found in 2024, and 30% of Fortune 500 board members.
Across S&P 500 company boardrooms, women accounted for 34% of all directors this year, up from 33% last year and 19% in 2014, according to leadership advisory firm Spencer Stuart.
A 2023 McKinsey study showed that companies with over 30% women executives were more likely to outperform companies with fewer women executives or none.
MATERNAL MORTALITY
The US has the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation, and over 80% of those deaths are preventable, the Commonwealth Fund reported in 2024.
Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC and health experts attribute the inequities to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease but also structural racism, implicit bias from health-care providers and lack of access to quality health care.
– REUTERS
