Let’s start off with this: I am in full support of gender equality, and I also recognize the unfairness going on in certain areas of the country, especially when it comes to power and numbers of women in leadership positions. However, just because someone is a woman, does not make them qualified to run an entire country. An election is not about gender. An election is not about having a woman so that you have a role model to look up to. An election is not about “mixing it up” or “just trying something new." While all of these ideas are compelling basic interests, they are NOT, by any means, a reason to cast your vote. If any of these reasons are the only reason why you may be voting then please cast aside your ballots.
Campus Reform does a beautiful job of displaying the willingness of students to vote simply because one of the candidates “is a woman." However, supporting someone solely because they are a woman is just another form of sexism. Like it or not, having the intention of voting for someone primarily based on their gender is only an encouragement of sexism and a reinforcement of the idea that being a man or a woman makes a huge difference in leadership abilities. Treating each candidate with equal opportunity for your vote is how you’re going to get the most out of your decision and make well-informed choices during the election.
Having a female figure as a role-model is no doubt always inspiring to young women, as well as women trying to build themselves up into leadership roles. Having a woman president would be a change many women would love to see. Yet this is just an idea. Whether or not we have a woman as President shouldn’t determine what other young women are able to do. There are plenty of role models to already look up to every day: Sylvia Path, Beyoncé, Audrey Hepburn, Aung San Suu Kyi, Katharine Hepburn, Malala Yousifazi, and many more.
If Hilary Clinton is an inspiration to women, then it shouldn’t matter whether she is running the country or not. Being a role model for other women and being the President of the United States are two different categories. Someone achieving their role or title because of their gender is not inspirational. Women who achieve their title because they are strong, capable, and hardworking are inspirational. The fact that they are women did not play into their success.
For some, the idea of having a woman President is just a way to “try something new." I can see where the curiosity comes from in this idea, but we were already told as children how curiosity turns out for cats… Though something new is always going to be interesting, please do not allow this to drive your ideas for voting. Sometimes the grass is not always greener on the other side, and it’s not exactly possible to go back to your side of the fence at the end of the day.
My opinion is my own, but I write this to encourage others to become more informed before taking the time to vote. Look into more details than just the ones you can find in the first three scrolls of your Facebook notifications. Look into all the candidates. Keep your minds open, and remember that just because someone is your gender does not mean they think like you, or even care what you think at all. Look at the person, not the sex.
