Women the real losers in the US midterms

Lihle Z Mtshali : You will already know there weren't many surprises in this week's United States midterm elections. The Republicans wiped the floor with the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, gaining control of the House and booting out more than 60 Democrats.

The Republicans also took governorships in 10 states from the Democrats. They even won the highly contested governor's race in Florida. Independents who backed President Barack Obama two years ago turned their backs on him and his party in their numbers in this poll.

Painful, but an expected result given Americans' disillusionment with their president and his policies, which are largely seen as socialist - such as money being thrown at the problematic banks in the form of bailouts. The slow recovery of the economy and the unemployment rate, which is more than 9%, also drove voters away from the Democrats.

It wasn't a total loss, though, as Obama enters the second half of his term; the Democrats still have control of the senate.

What surprised me when the results came out, however, was just how badly women fared in these midterms. In South Africa high-ranking female government ministers have become the norm, but it is not like that in the US. In fact, it was easier for Americans to elect a man of colour for president than a woman.

It's clear: a woman can be anything she wants in the US, just as long as she doesn't expect voters to put her into public office. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and the first female speaker of the house, is out. With the Republicans winning control, she will be replaced in January by John Boehner, a man. Yes, this is a man's world.

This year there were more female candidates than in past elections running for federal and state positions and although some of them were complete whackos, one hoped voters would catch up with the rest of the planet in realising that women can be just as effective as senators, governors and attorneys-general as they are as stay-at-home moms and company CEOs.

It wasn't to be so. A week ago Forbes magazine called them the Power Women of Elections 2010. In the end though, once the votes were counted, that did not translate to more women in office.

Sharron Angle, a Republican candidate for Nevada's senate seat; Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, who was running for California's senate seat under the Republican banner; Meg Whitman, a former eBay executive, a Republican who was running for governor of California; Linda McMahon, the former world wrestling entertainment executive, was the Republican candidate for the Connecticut senate seat; and Delaware's Republican senate candidate Christine O'Donnell all lost their races.

There were some female wins: Republican Nikki Haley won South Carolina's governorship; New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte won a senate seat for the Republicans, and a few women will take up some of the new house seats that the Republicans snatched from the Democrats.

Republican Susana Martinez was voted in as New Mexico's governor.

She sets the record as the first female governor for the state and the nation's first female Hispanic governor. Kamala Harris, a Democrat and current district attorney, was voted in as the first attorney-general of colour in California.

I remember when I was in school and a teacher asked us which country we thought would have the first black president, we all put our money on the US.

We laughed when she said Mzansi would. We did not see how that was possible. But if she were to ask me today which country would have the first female president, I would say South Africa stands a better chance than the US.

Americans are not ready for female leadership. It is sad and shocking that in 2010 gender equality is still such a huge problem in US politics.

The record number of female candidates running for high office in these midterms was a step in the right direction, but too tiny a step for a country like the US. Bigger strides need to be taken, and fast.