For the first time in 2020, the American presidency elections saw the highest number of women in American history contest. It also saw almost all the women drop out, one by one.
On Thursday, the last major woman candidate, Elizabeth Warren, dropped out of the presidential race.
“Every time I get introduced as the most powerful woman, I almost cry, because I wish that were not true,” said Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, in the wake of Warren’s exit. “I so wish that we had a woman president of the United States, and we came so close to doing that. I do think there’s a certain element of misogyny.”
Soon after her statement, the word 'Misogyny' spiked by over 2400% according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It also lists the reason as below:
Misogyny was among our top lookups on March 5th, 2020, in the wake of Elizabeth Warren’s decision to end her presidential campaign.
Misogyny, as defined by Merriam Webster, is "We define misogyny in a fairly narrow manner, “a hatred of women.” Misogyny differs from sexism in that it is restricted to hating women, whereas sexism might be applied to any sex. The word for “hatred of men” is misandry, that for “hatred of humankind” is misanthropy, and should you need to describe a “hatred of children” your term is misopedia."
Warren's dropping out is being considered misogyny, because, once again for the run to the presidential elections, the last men standing are just that, men. The two candidates left in the race with a shot at the nomination are two white men in their late seventies: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
“America hates women. I’m sad to say that I think that’s what it is,” a woman who voted for Warren told New York Times.
“One of the hardest parts of this,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, her voice shaking as she announced the end of her campaign on Thursday, “is all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years. That’s going to be hard," reports the New York Times.