Why is the US an outlier when it comes to electing a woman head of government?

Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of India for much of my childhood in the 1970s’ and ’80s, so when I came to the United States to finish high school in 1989, I was stunned to discover that America had never elected a woman president. It didn’t make sense given how “developed” the US is, and how relatively unfettered American women seemed – they went where they wanted to go, dressed how they liked, played all kinds of sports, embarked on every possible career, and seemed to have the same opportunities as men.

Parents didn’t despair when a girl baby was born, they didn’t spend more on their sons just because they were sons, there was no dowry system, no “bride burning,” nor were there female feticides.

Yet nearly 60 years ago, in 1966, Indians took a leap and voted Indira Gandhi into office. As we know, she won several elections and served as prime minister from 1966 to 1977, and then from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.

And India is far from the only “developing” country to have elected a woman head of government. In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the first woman to be elected prime minister of any country, Benazir...

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