Hillary Clinton (United States Government Work)

While Hillary Clinton has yet to officially throw her hat in the ring for the 2016 presidential election, at least one poll has her picked as the Democratic frontrunner. But can she make history to become the first US woman president?

Farida Jalalzai wrote the book “Shattered, Cracked, or Firmly Intact? Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide.” (Photo by August Jennewein)

University of Missouri–St. Louis political scientist Farida Jalalzai, author of “Shattered, Cracked, or Firmly Intact? Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide,” predicted in a Washington Post article that Clinton would lose in 2016 for the same reasons she failed to earn her party’s nomination in 2008.

“Clinton’s 2008 failure can be linked to difficulties women face in winning power in presidential systems through a popular vote,” Jalalzai, chair of UMSL’s Department of Political Science, wrote in her Post article. “America’s two-party system also presents an obstacle, as do the nomination competition and the general election contests, in which the popular vote features prominently. The entrenchment of men as American presidents remains unabated. Very little has changed in the United States to make Clinton’s 2016 prospects seem more likely.”

Visit The Washington’s Post’s blog The Monkey Cage to view Jalalzai’s full article.

Jalalzai and Vivian Eveloff, founder and director of the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life at UMSL, also recently discussed the topic on the St. Louis Public Radio program “St. Louis on the Air.”