Why not, indeed

Imagine that, as the nation heads deep into the presidential primary season, it had seven strong contenders from across the political spectrum with these credentials: an articulate advocate for social causes familiar with politics at the highest level; a former cabinet member and head of a large charitable organization; a United States senator; a military leader; the governor of a populous state; a successful business executive; and a former astronaut.

Yet a full 16 percent of the American public said it would not, under any circumstances, vote for any of these accomplished candidates. And what these one-in-six find so objectionable has nothing to do with specific policies or general philosophies. The only thing wrong with these seven candidates is that they’re all women.

The White House Project, a non-partisan public awareness campaign of Why Not a Woman, Inc., released the results Saturday of a months-long survey and mock presidential election, in which 100,000 votes were cast. The top vote getters, in alphabetical order, were: First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton; former Transportation Secretary/American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole; Sen. Dianne Feinstein; Army Gen. Claudia Kennedy; New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; Maxwell House President Ann Fudge; and former astronaut Mae Jemison.

It is moderately encouraging that the percentage of Americans who say women just aren’t tough enough for the world’s toughest job has been halved in the last eight years. It’s good, too, that the gender gap on this issue has closed — in 1992, a woman president was unacceptible to 40 percent of men and 26 percent of women; now, according to the survey, it’s virtually equal. But nearly a decade after the Year of the Woman effort to get more women into politics, the sex that makes up 52 percent of the population is still severely underrepresented in high office. There are only nine women among 100 senators, just 56 in the 435-member House, just three among the 50 governors.

While 16 percent say they would never vote for a woman for president, another 24 percent of survey respondents said they weren’t fundamentally opposed, they just didn’t think there were any capable women out there. It’s hard to decide which is worse, that one-sixth of Americans have an irrational prejudice or that one-fourth just aren’t paying attention.