By Ravi Janumpally, 15, Cate Academy

“Could a woman become the President of the United States? Though women have served as senators, governors and in many other elected positions, America has never had a female president.
The idea of a woman president is not absurd. In fact, there is an organization already working to make this a reality. The White House Project—Why Not a Woman, which is based in New York, aims to create an environment that will get qualified women elected in politics. The project’s Communication Director James Devitt said the group is working to change the way Americans think about women. “One obstacle that might keep a woman from being elected is that women are not taken as seriously as men. People see women as inferior to men, and our job at the foundation is to change this public awareness.”
Young people can improve women’s chances of being elected by becoming active and voting. “Another obstacle that women face in being elected is low voter turnout. If we could [increase] the voter turnout nationwide, there is a much greater chance of a woman being elected as President. We hope to do this by breaking through the cynicism and indifference that a lot of Americans, especially younger Americans, have about politics,” Devitt said.
In America, women have made major strides in every facet of life. David Wang, a Los Angeles high school student, said the women he knows are successful in leadership roles: “Women are present everywhere. I see them in high-paying jobs, respected jobs and powerful jobs. Most of the faculty at my school are women. The valedictorian this year was female and most of the club heads and newspaper staff are female.”

Some examples of womens’ success:
Oprah Winfrey has combined wit and intellect to become one of the most successful and most widely known talk show hosts, a honor that Oprah earned through her own sweat and blood. In fact, the Los Angeles Times named Oprah one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
The popularity of the Lilith Fair concerts and numerous female artists show the great influence that women have on the music industry today.
One hundred and fifty years ago, female doctors were a rarity, yet today the president of the American Medical Association is a woman. Janet Reno serves as Attorney General of the United States, the highest position in the field of law. It is ironic that our country has seen women such as Dineh Mohajer, the CEO/Founder of Hard Candy Cosmetics or Donna Shirley, the director of NASA’s Mars exploration program who contributed to fields ranging from fashion to space exploration, yet we rarely see a woman reach the higher echelons of politics.
Perhaps that is because some women have been fiercely criticized because they are powerful. For example, some have said Hilary Rodham Clinton misused the office of First Lady, and was too involved in foreign policy, health and other issues. Mrs. Clinton has taken pains to create a more “feminine” image for herself, by doing such things as discussing her favorite recipes in women’s magazines and promoting her book on child-rearing. Recently, Mrs. Clinton’s popularity ratings have increased because of the way she handled the Monica Lewinsky scandal. She has said that it’s a private matter and stood by her man, earning Americans’ respect for the womanly attributes of loyalty and courage under fire. These attitudes show that people are uncomfortable with women in power.
Judy Lee, a Burbank High student, said this about women in politics: “I think that women are always given the second best in politics and also measured on a different scale from men, a scale that severely limits the progress of women. We really have to turn this scale around and give women the rights that they deserve.”
In other countries, women have held the top political offices for many years. For example, Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi, prime ministers of Great Britain and India, held the highest positions in their countries almost two decades ago. Queen Elizabeth held the scepter of absolute rule over all of England almost 200 years ago. Just recently, Benazhir Bhutto finished two terms as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
For more than two centuries, women have made fundamental contributions to America, and it is about time that women are given political representation for their achievements. The time to elect a female president has come.”