In these United States we are wondering
if a woman is electable.
Is she likeable enough?
I donate to a woman candidate and I have put a sign
on my front lawn with a woman’s name on it.
I’m a woman. My wife is a woman.
Over half of my students are women. I teach over two hundred
students a semester. I see that women can.
We do and we can. But…
Can a woman lead? A headline asks.
Is she likeable enough to get elected? Another asks.
I was born from a woman.
All of us get here through the legs of a woman.
Women hold up half the sky.
All the slogans of my birth into feminist consciousness stir
and light up.
I believe a woman can lead, is electable,
and I don’t care if like her.
She is not my friend, and won’t be my friend and
anyway, I don’t expect all women to be my friend.
What I want is not for her to be my friend.
What I want is… a woman president.
I want a woman president. I want a little girl
to not be told she can’t be president because she’s a girl—
because girls can’t be president.
Girls have never been president.
Haha, what are you thinking?
I was repeatedly told, and countless numbers
of us—women–
were repeatedly told:
A woman has never been president. You can’t.
You can’t be president. It hasn’t happened.
You can’t.
It means so much more than that you can’t be president.
It means: you can’t.
And I believe, I believe, a woman can.
I can. A woman can.
You can. You can.
In these United States, yes, a woman can lead.
In these United States, yes, a woman can lead, and
she doesn’t have to be liked
by everyone in order to do it.
In these United States I believe a woman can.
Yes.
She can.
In these United States I want a woman president.
–Marie Cartier
February 2020
Marie Cartier has a Ph.D. in Religion with an emphasis on Women and Religion from Claremont Graduate University. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall (Routledge 2013). She is a senior lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies and Queer Studies at California State University Northridge, and in Film Studies at Univ. of CA Irvine.
feminismandreligion.com 
Me too! Thank you for the poem!
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You’re welcome! Keep up the good fight!
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I don’t even like the idea that a woman has to be “likeable” to be president… what we need is competence and compassion both – at this point a woman is our only hope.
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totally agree- i will vote blue no matter what but have no problem saying what i say above- i want a woman president. it matters. i had my students do an entire unit on this issue of “likeability” which affects women candidates more than anyone else
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yes, you are right – why do we have to be “liked” anyway? I’d rather have respect myself!
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Marie, thanks for writing this outspoken and true poem. Brava! I totally agree with Sara. A female leader who possesses competence and compassion is our only hope. I don’t want a female leader to be my friend. I want a woman leader who can do a better job than many of the male leaders have done and do.
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thank you my witchy sister friend. Let’s keep fighting the good fight!
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YES YES YES BARBARA!
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I was never told I couldn’t be President. In fact I was told I could be anything I wanted. So how did I always know I could never be President?
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I believe she can 👏🏿. Inspiring poem.
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I came back to this poem Marie, after Elizabeth announced she was stepping out of the race. While I am shattered, your words have kept those embers burning that we must continue to hope, dream, encourage, and manifest the spaces, thoughts, and people so that we will see a woman become President of the United States.
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