For centuries women have been regarded as below men. They have been given fewer job opportunities, been regarded as not as smart, and been overall viewed as less than men. In recent decades men and women in the job market have become increasingly equal, women have become lawyers and doctors, and men are becoming teachers and stay at home parents, but one field has remained male dominant: politics. Now there are plenty of inspiring female politicians, yet a woman has never been in the highest office in the United States, president. In this past election, Hillary Clinton became the first women to be a nominee for a significant party, yet America still wasn’t ready for a female leader. Aside from her political background, Clinton was still a prime candidate for the Democratic Party because of her age. Younger women are hardly involved in politics, let alone running for high-status office and this is because of children.

   Women who are still well within childbearing are more heavily scrutinized for running for office than women who aren’t. The youngest age one can be to be able to run for president is 35, which, if a woman wanted to be a presidential candidate, still allows her to have a good ten, possibly twenty, years that she can have children. Yet women are shamed out of running for office because, for them, it is posed as an either/or: children or a political career. In today’s society, a mother is still expected to stay at home with her child for months while the father is at work and that has been used as a “valid” reason to keep younger women out of office. Newsflash: it’s not.

   A man that is campaigning for office and has a wife that has or could have children should be regarded just as a woman would, but he’s not because women are considered differently, women are considered as unequal. When a woman is campaigning she should not be treated any differently than a man would and that means she should be asked the same questions. A woman candidate should never be asked whether or not they intend on having children for a myriad of reason, but mainly because it is not a question a man would be asked and because it is nobody’s business. A woman is entitled to her own make her own decisions and, overall, she is entitled to her own privacy, especially when it involves her own body. It is her body and it is up to her how she chooses to use it, it is private information and it is not something that should be publicized. On top of that, men are never questioned about their personal life, so what makes women different? A woman’s ability to have children or be a mother does not diminish her worth or ability to lead a country. Honestly, it probably enhances it – so why do people see it as a weakness?