Is it finally time for a female president?

More than 200 women have sought the U.S. presidency in the last 250 years. Only Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024 became major-party nominees. No woman has ever won the nation’s most consequential job.

The next presidential election is more than two years away, but several women are already mentioned as possible candidates. Voters will be asked again to decide whether America is ready to elect its first female president. But that is the wrong question.

The correct question, of course, is which candidate has the right skills and qualities to lead America at this point in history. Voters shouldn’t select or reject a presidential candidate just because she’s a woman. Gender should not be a factor. The time will come when a woman finally breaks through the shatter-resistant ceiling that female candidates have encountered for so long. That ceiling is beginning to show some cracks, but it’s still fortified by stereotypes.

Politico reports that “Americans remain wary of electing a female president.” An American University poll “reveals a complicated portrait of how voters view women in politics.” Voters want to see more women in public office, but “bias and narrow expectations” surface when voters react to women in our highest office.

What expectations? “Empathy, inclusivity, and fresh perspectives are widely seen as unique strengths women bring to elected roles,” the poll found . However, while women are most trusted to address family-related issues, men are more trusted to deal with national security, foreign adversaries, crime and global conflicts.

“Women candidates also face a ‘double bind,'” states the poll’s write-up — they need to be “both ‘tough’ and ‘likable,’ a standard not typically applied to their male counterparts.”

Yet, tough and likable are not mutually exclusive qualities; empathy is not unique to women; and men care about family issues, too. Until voters shed these biases, they will deprive the country of some of its most talented and promising leaders.

At the same time, America would benefit from some of the qualities typically associated with women. The country is suffering from a hot mess of hypermasculinity. The president bullies and abuses allies. Pete Hegseth can’t get enough testosterone. Kash Patel acts like a frat bro. Stephen Miller has deported empathy from immigration policy. Whoever inherits the White House will have to dedicate enormous time, energy and political capital to repairing what’s left of government and reviving the rest of the world’s trust in America. That will require considerable “empathy, inclusivity, and fresh perspectives.”

Those are not inherently female qualities; they are human qualities traditionally coded as feminine. Voters need to make a significant attitude adjustment. They must understand the extraordinary value of the softer attributes, particularly as we try to heal the country and its relationships abroad. And they must broaden their understanding of toughness.

The 48th president will have to be a healer, a unifier, a firm but principled leader, sympathetic to the American people’s needs, reluctant to make war, and open to cooperation with the rest of the world. He or she must acknowledge that bullying and isolationism don’t work in a thoroughly interconnected world.

At this moment, we need a strong leader, but also a more mature understanding of what strength entails. It’s genuine rather than performative. It’s found in friendships, not isolation. It acknowledges, corrects and learns from mistakes, rather than distracting us from them. It serves the people rather than the person. At the same time, he or she must stand up to tyrants rather than becoming one of them. And while it remains true that America must defend peace with strength, strength means much more than military muscle. It requires domestic unity, the commitment to a common vision, and a commitment to one another.

I mentioned some early cracks in the shatter-proof ceiling. A study published in Political Behavior indicates that the process of redefining presidential strength may already be underway. “The traits that people associate with women politicians are more positive than 10 years ago and more congruent to desirable traits for politicians,” the researchers found.

Concurrently, respect for stereotypical male politicians and politics “shows a strong downfall compared to a decade ago.” The more positive view of women politicians and more negative view of their male counterparts corresponds with the Trump era.

Will there be a candidate who combines the best qualities of both? That’s what we should watch for as the next group of candidates emerges for the 2028 election.

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “ Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and a contributor to Democracy in a Hotter Time , named by the journal Nature as one of 2023’s five best science books. He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.