Everyone Else Figured This Out
By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News
Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — October 15, 2026
🎯 Say it plainly: sexism mattered. Twice.
A lot of voters would rather risk authoritarianism than accept a woman in power.
That bias didn’t disappear — it just hid behind “other reasons.”
By the early twenty-first century, the question of whether women could govern at the highest level was no longer theoretical. Around the world, countries answered it in practice.
Germany relied on Angela Merkel through financial crises, migration shocks, and geopolitical upheaval. Her leadership was not dramatic. It was steady, procedural, and effective—precisely what voters claimed they wanted. New Zealand followed Jacinda Ardern through moments of national trauma with clarity and restraint, demonstrating that calm authority could coexist with decisiveness.
Chile elected Michelle Bachelet twice. Liberia entrusted Ellen Johnson Sirleaf with rebuilding a post-conflict state. Taiwan continues under Tsai Ing-wen while facing sustained external pressure and constant strategic threat.
These leaders differ sharply in ideology, temperament, and policy. What they share is outcome: none of their societies unraveled because a woman held executive power. The feared instability never arrived.
Against this record, the United States stands out—not as cautious, but as stalled. It is one of the wealthiest and most institutionally mature democracies in the world, yet it remains unable to cross a threshold others passed years ago. Even political factions that speak obsessively about strength, order, and authority refuse to test their own claims.
This is not a failure of opportunity. It is a failure of nerve.
American voters have now demonstrated twice that they are willing to tolerate authoritarian risk rather than confront ingrained bias. When challenged, that bias retreats behind abstractions about process, strategy, or timing. But the pattern is visible to anyone willing to compare records rather than rhetoric.
If a future candidate—possibly including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will be constitutionally eligible to run in 2028—forces the issue again, the historical groundwork will already be laid. The question will not be whether a woman can lead a modern state.
It will be whether the United States can finally admit why it has refused to let one try.
For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com
This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.
References (APA)
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Angela Merkel. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Jacinda Ardern. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Michelle Bachelet. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Tsai Ing-wen. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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