If Sarah Palin would have won the vice presidency, Noopur Pathak said it would have been "a terrible thing," and "no one would ever elect a woman again for anything."
Pathak, vice president and treasurer of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, was "very happy" to hear of Barack Obama's win over John McCain Tuesday night, especially because it meant Palin lost.
"This is the best thing for this country in eight years, he better not screw it up though," Pathak (graduate-mathematics) said.
Although Palin, the first female vice presidential candidate to represent the Republican party, did not win the election, she has influenced the position of women in politics -- for better or worse, some say.
Nichola Gutgold, Penn State Lehigh Valley associate professor of communication arts and sciences and author of Paving the Way for Madam President, and Pathak have contrasting views on the influence Palin has had on women in politics.
"I would say any qualified woman who is effective as an elected official is great progress for women in politics, and certainly having a woman achieve that would be a great milestone in history," Gutgold said.
While Gutgold doesn't believe Palin was the most qualified candidate, based on her rhetorical skills, she still thinks the vice presidential candidate has broken barriers.
"A Republican has never had a woman on the ticket ever, so that is a tremendous barrier that has been broken," Gutgold said. "I also think the issue of motherhood has been advanced in terms of a professional woman having children. She has used her motherhood as part of the rhetorical argument she is qualified instead of a liability."
Pathak said Hillary Clinton was the barrier-breaker in this election and a Palin victory would have been damaging to the future of women in politics.
"Honestly, I think any barriers that have been broken have been broken by Hillary Clinton ... [Palin] was chosen because of politics. It was all politics. Her merits were not accounted for at all," Pathak said.
Both Pathak and Gutgold agree having a woman on the ballot would not influence whom women voted for in the election.
"I don't think women are that stupid. ... I don't think women would vote for Palin just because they are women. I really hope. I don't think most women are that dumb," Pathak said.
Gutgold said she doesn't think women were "monolithic" and credited the "very different ideologies" of the political race to show women are not "singular" in one type of ideology.
Gallup Polls throughout the election consistently showed women favored Obama over McCain from June 9 through Nov. 2.
