4 kids [from Lopez Island] on whether America is ready for a woman president

Children and grown-ups alike are reckoning with the results of the 2024 presidential election.

||| FROM THE WASHINGTON POST |||

Students in Richard Carter’s 10th grade English classes on Lopez Island, Washington, wrote reflections both before and after the election about whether the United States was ready to elect a woman as president. These are four of their responses.

Jaxson Prout

Before the election, I wrote that I truly didn’t know if America was ready for a female president because of the reaction an extremely capable woman was getting from voters. Clearly, I was right. I am not surprised, just extremely sad that we couldn’t make the right choice. Even a majority of White women voted for Donald Trump, voted to take their own rights away, voted against their daughters.

We were not ready, but we should have been. We have four years until climate change is irreversible, four years in which President-elect Donald Trump plans to withdraw us from the Paris agreement. We have failed our own planet in the mentality of us vs. them. I am ashamed to live in a place where taxes and party loyalty matter more than our home.

Saskia Fischer

It is very sad that the American people couldn’t elect a female president. We were hoping for history to be made, and it was. Donald Trump will become the first felon to be America’s president. We have elected our first felon president before our first woman president. That makes me sick to my stomach and fearful for this country.

Everyone is blaming Vice President Kamala Harris because she lost the election, but that is completely wrong. She put together an amazing campaign with the help of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. But even after the Jan. 6 riots, after Mr. Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York, and after she mopped the floor with him during the debate, it still wasn’t enough.

Ms. Harris was the obvious choice. She would have been a great president, and I’m sad that we threw away another opportunity for the first female leader in exchange for one of the worst presidents this country has ever seen.

I’m scared to see what this country will look like after four years. And I just don’t understand why people are so afraid of a woman in power, even other women.

Rosa Charnley

When I was thinking about this question before the election, I wondered whether some people weren’t ready for a woman president because they were scared that if one woman could be so powerful, then their carefully constructed egos would crumble, or worried that we would rule with our emotions. In other societies, women are seen as rulers and wise ones. We have to be ready for change because this world might fall apart if we don’t start.

Now the election is over. Now we’ll have a president who is a felon. A man who has said things about his daughter that you might say to a lover. A man who has no respect for women and who says racist things. Vice President Kamala Harris was so close to leading this country into a new, better age, one where women don’t have to work four times harder than men for the same goal. She could have won, could have brought this to us, but I think this country’s men were scared of her. They are scared that a woman could be better at their jobs, better at accepting defeat but never letting anyone crush her spirit, better at balancing everything on her shoulders. The one thing America hates more than a foolish man is a smart woman.

Kylie Willemsen

I think we are ready to have a female president. For years we’ve had men as our leaders, and it would be good to have a new perspective on things, not just from a man’s point of view. People complain about the idea of a female president, but I don’t understand why. Why should it matter whether our president is a man or a woman? We just need a good leader, and I think a woman would do just as good a job as any man. I believe that no matter your gender, we’re all equal. We all have minds; they might not think the same, but anyone is capable of accomplishing anything. There might be more challenges, but if you really want something, then the challenges can be seen as opportunities.

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