While I certainly believe that American culture the prevailing attitudes toward women has quite a bit to do with the fact there has not been a female president or a serious candidate for the office aside from Clinton , it ' s also worth noting that American citizens have much more say in the choosing of the presidential candidates in our open primary system than in European countries , where most primaries if they happen at all are closed to the general public and have extremely low turnout . Look at the UK Jeremy Corbyn won his last leadership election with 300 , 000 votes in a country of 65 million people . If the GOP or Democrats could wave a wand or hold very closed primaries it would be pretty easy to get a woman as their candidate , even if it wouldn ' t happen organically .