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People have much love for the all-women moderator panel at the presidential debate

It's the third time in history.

 

Claire Goforth

IRL

Posted on Nov 20, 2019   Updated on May 19, 2021, 10:28 pm CDT

Tonight was the first debate in this presidential election, and only the third in history, to feature an all-female panel of moderators.

In spite of women comprising a shade more than 50% of the United States’ population, and having voting rights nationwide for a century, females have been largely trapped beneath the glass ceiling in national politics until recent years.

Much like the four female candidates onstage, tonight NBC News’ Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, and Kristen Welker, and Ashley Parker from the Washington Post were literally breaking through that ceiling in real-time.

“Elect more women,” Christina Reynolds of EMILY’s List tweeted. “Have more women as moderators. Make sure more women are at the table…wherever the table is.”

“Just awesome to see 4 women moderators for tonight’s #DemDebate. Past time!” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) tweeted.

“Well it took four women moderators to make it happen – but on the FIFTH Democratic debate we are FINALLY hearing questions about women-related issues,” activist Amy Siskind said, nodding to complaints that previous debates didn’t delve nearly enough into abortion, maternity leave, and other issues that are of particular importance to women.

https://twitter.com/JenniferWexton/status/1197348024349057025?s=20

https://twitter.com/JenniferWexton/status/1197348024349057025?s=20

An interesting effect of having more women moderating the debate, as Vox editor Kay Steiger pointed out, is that the four women on stage were also getting more speaking time than in previous debates.

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*First Published: Nov 20, 2019, 10:03 pm CST