Women are still waiting for the perfect candidate

President Bush and Senator John Kerry squared off last Thursday, Sept. 24, at the first presidential debate. Amusing as it was to watch two grown men degrade each other's tactics and ethics and then turn around and make empty promises to America, come this November one of these men will be running our country.

After the debate I discussed the two candidates' policies and ethics with my friends and heard different views. It became evident that America needs to see a woman candidate. It is a sad reality that there will probably never be a woman president in my lifetime. I do not understand this, although my male friends seem to have it figured out.

Some of my male friends commented that women are too emotional to be president. The leaders of other countries would not take the United States seriously with a woman president.

They also said that women are against war and would not use the military because they would always try to talk issues over.

I have my own reasoning as to why there will probably not be a woman president in my lifetime. Men have always been dominant over women since the earliest times. Aristotle said that women are not as rational as men, so they are naturally ruled by men. Considered to be better suited for home and care, women have been conditioned to adopt ‘feminine' characteristics. Women did not gain a voice until the 1960s.

It is because of this classification that the idea of having a woman president remains suppressed. I happen to know that women are strategic planners that consider all sources and possibilities. A woman president would not instigate a war just to receive immediate results like President Bush has with the "War on Terrorism." This war is dragging on at the cost of soldiers' lives and is being compared to the Vietnam War. Troops are still being deployed to Iraq while Bush is hypocritically postulating a premature conclusion of the war to the American people.

The statement that women are too emotional to run the country is an absurd concept generated from the common male belief that women choose to express their feelings and have a desire to talk problems out until the core of the issue is resolved. This concept is an illusion and Aristotle was mistaken when he said women are not rational. Having a woman president would provide a rational perception that could help produce a better world for the American people.

The outcome of the up-and-coming presidential election between the two main candidates, Bush and Kerry, is just as hard to grasp as the idea of a woman president. There is a saying that behind every great man there is an even greater woman. Well, I think it is time for the greater women of our country to step in front and use women's intuition to our advantage and set in place a political foundation to boost the careers, viewpoints and reasonable ethics that women encompass.

Ginny Galvin is a third year print journalism major at CSULB.