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Less than a year ago, the Democratic presidential field featured a record number of female candidates, many of them with credentials as strong as any of the men in the race. As the primary carried on, however, the women in the contest gradually fell off one by one.
Elizabeth Warren, the last woman with a realistic shot at winning, dropped out last week after a poor showing on Super Tuesday. Her withdrawal ended the chance that the first woman president would be elected in 2020. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is still in the running but trails Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders by more than 500 delegates.
Women have been running for the presidency since 1872, when Victoria Woodhull launched an ill-fated challenge to incumbent Ulysses S. Grant. Female candidates became increasingly competitive in recent decades, culminating in Hillary Clinton’s narrow loss to Donald Trump in 2016. More than 50 countries around the world have had a female leader.