After a long and unpredictable election season, Donald Trump has won the election to become the next president of the United States.
At 1:30 a.m., the Associated Press called the election for Trump. He rallied white voters from various socioeconomic backgrounds to massive turnout, and he overcame long odds to pull off one of the biggest general-election upsets in U.S. history. Trump captured swing states Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, some of which were initially projected to go Clinton’s way.
Trump won big with white voters young and old, and working-class and college-educated white voters. As is typical for Republican candidates, he won big in rural areas, while urban centers tended to fall along blue lines.
In the aftermath of the long campaign season, students and faculty commented on what it will mean to be a woman living under a Trump presidency.
Some female faculty members, such as Professor Melanie Sheldon from the Department of Psychological Sciences, expressed their concerns over a Trump presidency.
“Donald Trump will govern like the previous Republican white male presidents,” Sheldon said. “I think American life became less fair to all when they were leading.”
Students also expressed their opinions on what it would mean to be a woman living in a Trump presidency.
“Trump has easily shown how he would be damaging to every single type of identity that a woman might hold,” Feminist Student Union President Lydia Ghuman said. “I think what it means to women is that the symbol of all this oppression that they face on a very daily basis, like being groped by strangers or having sexist things said at them, now is going to be represented by our structural head of the United States. Our country will be embodying all of these sexist values. I think he’d represent a lot of fear for a lot of women.”
Not all female students hold the same concerns about a Trump presidency, though. Francesca Boewe, a sophomore political science and communication major and a member of College Republicans, said that no matter what gender you are, a Trump presidency is the best thing for the country.
“The perspective of ‘as a woman…’ when analyzing this election is irrelevant to me,” Boewe said. “Donald Trump as president of United States would be a great thing for women because it is the best choice for American citizens. His head campaign manager [Kellyanne Conway] is a woman and … that just goes to prove that he supports and believes that women are just as capable as men in any circumstance due to the fact he gave her the most important role in his campaign.”
_Edited by Emily Gallion | egallion@themaneater.com_