You may not have noticed, but back in November, Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first woman to take the presidency.
OK, just for an hour and a half. But still.
Joe Biden provisionally – very temporarily – transferred executive power to his vice president as he was preparing for colonoscopy. That involves being sedated, and you don’t want the country to be run by a guy with a sleeping brain, even if we’ve spent four years like that in the very recent past.
But really, humans. This should at least be a reminder of how far we have come. Our country is 246 years old, and that means 2,160,000 hours. Half of them are placed under the direction of a woman.
It was a bit embarrassing when we heard from London that Liz Truss just became the new prime minister. She is the third woman chosen to run the government in the UK. In the United States, the numbers are:
A. One – Hillary really won! Really, she won!
B. Two – I’m counting that day with Kamala Harris, plus I think we can throw in that time in Salem when the top witches take over.
C. Gee, guess we’re still waiting.
The country doesn’t seem comfortable with female governors. Currently, only our nine states was led by a female executive, and four of the first women started the job after the elect resigned, for reasons ranging from ambassadorial status to Andrew Cuomo.
We don’t do great legislatively, or: A quarter of our senators are women and about 28% of the members of the House are. After midterms, that could get worse. “It looks like under the most likely scenarios, we will have fewer women in the House and Senate next year,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been a storm of fundraising action for political candidates. Democratic candidate, told me.
Still, American voters still find it easier to envision a female member of Congress than a female executive. Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women in Politics said: “The stereotype about women’s leadership is more relevant to the legislature. The problem, Walsh suggests, is that women are seen as good at getting along with others but not necessarily running the business.
In the UK, where the prime minister is often the leader of the majority party, the harmony part is perhaps more important. The two previous women in the job, like Truss, were the Tories: Margaret Thatcher for 11 years, starting in 1979, and Theresa May, who led the government from 2016 to 2019.
Thatcher was known as the “Iron Lady” and is remembered, among other things, for the conflict in the Falkland Islands, a lesson to all other heads of state that the best way can be to win a war is in less than 10 weeks.
We don’t care much about May’s regime, but it did include a campaign against illegal immigrants with ads warning them to “go home or face arrest” and handcuffed pictures.
She also once wore a t-shirt that read, “This is the image of a feminist.” Huh!
Of course, no one wants to see any woman running America. But there are plenty of female politicians with as much leadership potential as any male. And the fight for equality must continue until they get equal rights in the presidency.
Take a deep breath and let’s see what’s happened in our history so far. And ignore the fact that there are chapters in the story that even the most stirring are not inspiring. “Ma” Ferguson of Texas was one of the first American women to be elected governor – in 1924 after her husband was impeached. She continues to make her mark by pardoning an average of 100 crimes a month during her first term, in what appeared to be a paid free system.
OK, back to the bright side: What about Margaret Chase Smith, who bravely stood up to Joe McCarthy’s frantic seduction in the Senate when all her colleagues were shivering under their desks? In 1964, Smith organized very reasonable opinion that she would make a better president than the likely Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater. She also thought it’s time to “break down barriers against women being taken seriously for the presidency.”
Yes, that was 58 years ago. Still waiting.
Smith’s fight isn’t a real test of how well a female candidate can do, unless you consider that candidate can get past the minimum campaign amount, along with trends. unfortunately emphasizes her blueberry muffin recipe. But she is definitely someone you want to take as a guide.
And Hillary Clinton, who received the most votes in 2016, but was stymied by our unique Electoral College system, thinks every 193,000 people in Wyoming deserve influence. like about 715,000 people in California.
Gillibrand, who briefly tried her hand at running for president on her own, is confident she will meet a woman in the White House during her lifetime. “It’s better to have – I hope in the next 10 years.”
Me too.
