Hillary Clinton made U.S. history this week when she claimed the Democratic presidential nomination.
The moment made me wonder what took so long. After all, other countries around the globe—including some democracies that are only of recent vintage—have had female leaders for decades. In all, the Pew Research Center says the world has 18 female leaders.
So what gives? One theory, laid out in a Los Angeles Times story, says that women have an easier time winning office in nations with newly democratic regimes because their political elites are less entrenched. India, which has been a democracy for just over six decades, has the best record for electing, and keeping, women in power.
The U.S., by contrast, “has had two centuries to develop old-boy networks, the results of which are walls that are less easy to scale,” Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California told the Times. “New democracies have had less time to build such walls.”
Better late than never.
Have a terrific Thursday!