For the second time in eight years, a woman has lost to former President, and now President-elect, Donald Trump. The promise of female leadership is unable to prevail at the ballot box, with two female presidential nominees falling short by a margin. Not only have these female candidates lost, but an entire nation of women with them. 

In 2008, former President Barack Obama’s election was a historic moment that symbolized a future against discrimination. Under the “HOPE” campaign slogan, which initially declared lasting change, Obama became the first man of color to take position in the Oval Office. Yet eight years later, America’s direction towards government-level advancement ended abruptly.

All the voters who were furious that a Black man inhabited the White House came back to the polls with vengeance in 2016. With blood-red MAGA hats and orange-tinted glasses, voters ushered a new man into the Oval Office, eight years of work towards economic stability, anti-discrimination, and “HOPE” squandered with the laying of a hand on a bible. 

Defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, and now Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, Trump has symbolically trounced women’s advancement. His election, and now re-election, has dashed any of my hopes for a brighter future for women in America. 

I would understand this election if it occurred before the 1920s, when women lacked the voting rights to voice their opinion for a president in their best interest. But in 2024, voting for Donald Trump, who is openly and vividly misogynistic, is a personal attack against the future of women’s rights. 

Let’s look at the facts: as of 2024, Donald Trump has 25 sexual misconduct allegations against him. Trump has treated women with blatant disrespect, in the case of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and is convicted in federal court for sexual assault, in the case of author E. Jean Carroll. Weeks before his 2016 election, a leaked tape revealed Trump spoke of using his wealth to get away with grabbing women by their genitals, yet he still took residence in the White House less than a month later. 

Evident by his actions inside and outside the White House, all American women now face incredible losses. During his first presidential term, Trump hand-selected three conservative Supreme Court justices, shifting the court to a Republican majority. The uneven court leveraged their majority to follow through on Trump’s 2016 promise to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. As the Court gave power over abortion rights back to the states, Trump became responsible for creating some of the most lethal abortion bans in the country. 

Although he continues to deflect rumors of his association with Project 2025, it’s well known that over 40 of Trump’s former political advisors are among the plan’s formulators. The conservative project’s implementation overhauls many advancements throughout the last 50 years, with one of the key components pushing the overturning of Roe v. Wade even further. Project 2025 lays out a plan to end abortion protections provided under the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, effectively ending any use of life-saving reproductive care, as well as restrictions on emergency contraceptives and other forms of birth control. 

Furthermore, Trump’s proposed economic policies hurt the viability of working women. Project 2025 proposes reversals on executive orders preventing sex discrimination in the workplace, and Trump himself has declared at campaign rallies that he plans to limit women and LQBTQ+ workplace discrimination protections, restrict the rights of transgender minors, and reinstate the transgender military ban.

He has also refused to increase the federal minimum wage numerous times, of which 68 percent of the minimum-wage earning population are women. Under his previous term, he ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop collecting compensation data linked to sex, race, and ethnicity, limiting the government’s ability to document pay disparities.

Globally, his ignorance of the climate crisis threatens women’s livelihood everywhere. According to the World Economic Forum, women are disproportionately impacted by rising temperatures, contributing to higher chances of preterm births and general malnutrition. By 2050, climate change may cause up to 158 million more women and girls to fall into poverty. 

When Trump resumes his position in the Oval Office in January, I, along with millions of other women, will hold my breath in horrified anticipation. The repeated missed opportunities for a female president rings throughout the country, speaking to the country’s ever-present undertones of sexism, racism, and otherism. The unfortunate truth is that the only thing Americans fear more than a sex offender in office is a woman in office.