Throughout history, women have ruled all over the world, leading monarchies, being voted in as presidents and taking on leadership position in firms and organizations both large and small. On Tuesday July 26th 2016, history was made in American leadership as Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman to be nominated to become the president of the United States. As Hillary Clinton has achieved this milestone in US history, it is essential to look at the current environment of which women in America are living who want to reach those heights.
Hillary Clinton
America, once a leader in gender equality, has gradually fallen in rank from 1990 to 2010 in female labor force participation among the 22 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, dropping from sixth to 17th.[1] In 2013 the United States was ranked 60th out of 136 countries in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index, which provides a measure in gender-based disparities in health, economy, politics and education. When looking at female presentation in the government, we have a record number, in 2015, 104 women took their seats in the Congress, comprising 19.4% of the 535 members, 20 women serve in the Senate, and 84 women serve in the House. In addition we have four women delegates representing American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands in the United States House of Representatives.[2] When it comes to the private sector, the Pew Research Center reported that “only 26 women are now serving as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies—roughly 5%. In 1995 there were none. Women are slightly better represented in corporate boardrooms than they are at the CEO level. As of 2013, about one-in-six board members of Fortune 500 companies (17%) were women, up from 10% in 1995.”[3] Even with these rankings and statistics, it must be also noted that “women under the age of 30 out earn their male peers and 40% of American households have women as the main breadwinners.”[4] The Pew Research Center also found that “since the 1990s, women have outnumbered men in both college enrollment and college completion rates, reversing a trend that lasted through the 1960s and ’70s, and women today are more likely than men to continue their education after college.”[5] With this understanding of the environment, it is essential to know how individuals perceive women in leadership and what exactly is holding women back from taking more leadership positions in America. Through the Pew Research Center we get a few of the answers.
The Center found that a majority of Americans perceive women as being as equally capable as men at being political 
leaders and the same can be said in the view of women in the corporate sector.[6] Even with this view, women contend with a double standard. The Pew Research Center notes in their findings that “four-in-ten Americans point to a double standard for women seeking to climb to the highest levels of either politics or business, where they have to do more than their male counterparts to prove themselves.”[7] Women are essentially caught in a catch 22 whereby when they fulfill their leadership roles, their actions might lead to a view of not being likable which in turn may impact their ability to lead. In addition to this, women also have to contend with work-family life balance, where they find themselves marginalized as they seek to create time for family life and hence are unable to work long hours that has become part of American work culture.[8] The combination of these cultural and structural barriers among other barriers, create an environment in which women are not moving along the pipeline and taking more leadership positions.
Creating an environment for women to display their skills is essential for not only the female population but for society as a whole. The progression of communities is only improved with the balanced presence of men and women. Each gender bringing in their own set of experiences, enabling for a well-balanced set of perspectives, skills and abilities to successfully get work done. America has become one more country on the list to bring forth a woman to lead a country, a moment that cannot be forgotten within the history of America. With the nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US and the world will await for what that means for American society, but the one thing that is certain is that one more girl can look up and believe that she can be all that she aspires to be.
[1] Judith Warner, “Women’s Leadership: What’s True, What’s False, and Why It Matters,” Center for American Progress, March 7, 2014, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2014/03/07/85467/womens-leadership/.
[2] “Women in U.S. Congress 2015,” Center For American Women And Politics, http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-2015.
[3] “Women and Leadership,” Pew Research Center, January 14, 2015, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/01/14/women-and-leadership/.
[4] Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, “It’s Time for a New Discussion on ‘Women in Leadership’,” Harvard Business Review, March 28, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/03/its-time-for-a-new-discussion-on-women-in-leadership/.
[5] “Women and Leadership.”
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Warner, “Women’s Leadership.”