How much does America, including the women, hate women? Twice, an immensely qualified woman has run for president against a frighteningly unfit man, and twice that frighteningly unfit man has won. Before the election, Oliver Hall had conversations with hundreds of potential voters in America. His summary of what he heard includes this:

Time and again, voters, very often women themselves, told me that they just didn’t think that “America is ready for a female president”. People said they couldn’t “see her in the chair” and asked if I “really thought a woman could run the country”. One person memorably told me that she couldn’t vote for Harris because “you don’t see women building skyscrapers”. Sometimes, these people would be persuaded, but more often than not it was a red line. Many conversations would start with positive discussions on policy and then end on Harris and her gender. That is an extraordinary and uncomfortable truth.

It is often very difficult to fight the urge to grab people by the shoulders and just shake them, hard.