Tonight, Candy Crowley of CNN will host the second presidential debate, joining only a few other women who have been moderators. Crowley is the first female moderator of a presidential debate since 1992, when Carole Simpson was the host.
Three High School students from Montclair, New Jersey, recognized the long trend of only male moderators and decided to take action. The students, Emma Axelrod, Elena Tsemberis and Sammi Siegel, started a Change.org petition to allow more gender equality and bring a woman to moderate a presidential debate.
Three students from Montclair, New Jersey, successfully petition for a woman moderator in the presidential debates. Photo courtesy of thirteen.org
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on August 13 that Candy Crowley will moderate the second presidential debate, taking place tonight.
Axelrod, Tsemberis, and Siegal received over 130,000 signatures and delivered the petitions to the Democratic and Republican National Committees at the end of July.
The fact that it has been two decades since the last woman moderator of a presidential debate shows that gender inequality still exists in the media. From CNN to Fox News, there are plenty of qualified women to do the job, yet it took a petition and 20 years for the Commission on Presidential Debates to appoint a woman to moderate a presidential debate.
Crowley is the anchor of State of the Union with Candy Crowley on CNN. She has won a variety of awards for her journalistic achievements, including an Emmy in 2003 for her contribution to Enemy Within on CNN.
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