It appears this will not be the year that sees a woman elected as the next President of the United States. It isn’t surprising when you look at how many years it took to elect other firsts.

First (and only) non-married POTUS 1857. First Catholic POTUS 1960. First divorced and remarried POTUS 1980. First non-white POTUS 2008.

Since women didn’t even receive the right to vote until 1920, it has only been 100 years since they could be considered. By comparison, non-white men were granted the right almost immediately after the Civil War in 1870. So, how much longer before this too will end?

Geraldine Ferraro was a serious vice presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton was the first woman to receive a major political party nomination and nearly won — and, in fact, did carry the majority vote, but not the electoral college.

This year saw multiple women candidates take a run, and with a boost from the momentum of the #MeToo movement had a significant effect on the early races.

Elizabeth Warren was at one point the leader in a very crowded field of Democratic candidates. She suffered devastating losses when none (not even the other women) of the other candidates endorsed her as they fell out of the race; choosing instead to back Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.

So, Thursday she ended her campaign and delays the possibility of a woman being elected at least another four years.

The gender commitment was not very strong and that is probably in part due to the departing candidates wanting to support whomever they considered to be the most likely winner.

Everyone loves to support the one most likely to win once it becomes clear. That explains why Gov. Wolf is unwilling to state where his support will be until someone actually wins the nomination. You can’t be guilty of supporting a loser if you hide your allegiance.

So, if not 2020, the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, then when? 2024 or 2028?

No one, whether white or non-white, can possibly argue that anything President Obama did as president, whether you viewed him as great POTUS or a terrible POTUS, had anything to do with the color of his skin, but before his election there were plenty who wanted to debate if America was ready for a minority POTUS. Hogwash! That is and was a ridiculous position.

And the same thing applies to the question now about our willingness to elect a woman. Will the Democratic Party’s chance to win in November be affected by the selection of a woman for the ticket? Will it help or hurt the candidate either way?

Hopefully, it is far more important that the VP candidate have the experience and qualifications to make a good president in the event of a tragedy requiring the person to step up to the highest position in the land.

It would be a shame if the first woman elected gets the title through any method other than winning the election.

But surely that day has arrived, and will soon happen that the Speaker of the House can introduce the POTUS and we can all stand and applaud as she makes HER way to the speaker’s podium.

— RV