Kamala Harris was a candidate of many firsts, together with the primary Black and South Asian girl to run for president because the Democratic nominee.
Her resounding, swift loss within the presidential race to Republican Donald Trump on Nov. 5, 2024, means many issues to totally different folks, together with the truth that American voters are unable to interrupt the glass ceiling and elect a girl as president.
Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Dialog U.S., spoke with Farida Jalalzai, a scholar of girls political leaders and gender in politics, to higher perceive the importance of Harris’ defeat – and the way the U.S. stands aside from different nations which have had feminine leaders.
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How vital was Kamala Harris’ gender in her loss?
I can’t say it was a major purpose she misplaced. However what I can say is it was an element that contributed to her lack of assist, particularly if you evaluate her efficiency with Joe Biden’s in the identical locations and with nearly all the similar voting teams he received in 2020. Gender was a part of the marketing campaign panorama in many alternative methods this election. Trump and his supporters used insulting tropes about what a girl chief would appear like on the world stage. He used a whole lot of misogynistic and racist appeals in his marketing campaign and tried to mobilize voters in ways in which aimed to bolster patriarchy.
What does Harris’ loss say about the place gender equality stands within the nation?
I’m not stunned that the glass ceiling for girls in politics remains to be tremendous sturdy within the U.S. That is an instance of the nation’s limits of constructing true progress on girls’s empowerment and equality. After all, the truth that Harris was a girl of coloration vying to be the primary girl president of the U.S. is pertinent.
Trump asserted that the nation wants a robust man to guide. He portrayed Harris as a liberal extremist and customarily obtained the message by way of {that a} girl wouldn’t be as much as the job of president.
When Geraldine Ferraro ran as the primary feminine vice presidential candidate nominated by a serious celebration in 1984, there have been a whole lot of questions on whether or not she could be powerful sufficient on the world stage. Now, there are nonetheless questions on whether or not a girl could be powerful sufficient to guide.
How does this election evaluate with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 marketing campaign in opposition to Trump?
In 2016, Hillary Clinton highlighted the historic nature of a girl operating for president of the U.S. – and, in fact, she acquired almost 3 million votes greater than he did, although she nonetheless misplaced the election. Harris was reluctant to say the historic nature of her candidacy. She didn’t point out this when she gave her acceptance speech on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in August 2024. She not too long ago defined this by saying, “Properly, I’m clearly a girl. The purpose that most individuals actually care about is are you able to do the job and do you may have a plan to truly give attention to them.”
One other vital issue is Trump’s political trajectory. In 2016, Trump was nonetheless seen as an outlier and an extremist. Many political scientists – together with myself – didn’t suppose he would obtain the nomination, not to mention win the final election that 12 months. We see now that Trump is the new regular of the Republican Social gathering. Extra average Republicans, similar to Liz Cheney, are additionally not in energy anymore. The celebration has turn out to be extra excessive.
Is the nation shifting backward on gender equality, or is it caught in impartial?
A number of months in the past, I might have stated that the nation is shifting ahead, however I really feel prefer it’s shifting backward now. That Trump’s sexist and racist messages resonated with a considerable variety of folks – or not less than didn’t hassle some sufficient – is a priority. Trump additionally stated excessive issues about girls in 2016, together with calling Hillary Clinton “a nasty girl.” This time round, these assaults appeared extra normalized, saying that Harris was in a strong political place solely as a result of she traded sexual favors, for instance.
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Girls have led different nations. What makes the U.S. totally different?
The U.S. is a nuclear energy and a serious army and financial pressure. These realms are sometimes stereotyped by some as masculine. The president stands atop the U.S. political system and is straight elected. Girls leaders typically ascend by way of appointment as prime ministers in parliamentary methods. One of many vulnerabilities of prime ministers is that their phrases in workplace are much less safe. The traits deemed becoming for these roles – in search of compromise, for instance – could show much less of a problem to girls than they might in the event that they had been in search of to be president of a strong nation just like the U.S. on the world stage.
Solely two girls presidents in energy in presidential methods had been straight elected, and they’re in Honduras and Mexico. The previous is a former first woman, and the latter has sturdy ties to her predecessor. Whereas girls have been presidents of nations, a number of, similar to the present presidents of Ethiopia, India and Greece, are basically symbolic. These positions are very totally different from the U.S. presidency, which has a extra dominant function.
It is usually fairly unusual for a lady to be elected president in a presidential system with out being a member of a strong political household or with out being supported by a male predecessor. Whenever you have a look at Laura Chinchilla, the previous president of Costa Rica, or former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, what linked a whole lot of these feminine politicians is that they had been very a lot aided by male predecessors.
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, the previous president of Argentina, had a wealth of political expertise earlier than she got here to workplace in 2007, however she served instantly after her husband, Néstor Kirchner, was president.
There’s a complexity to those circumstances, and a whole lot of these girls introduced in their very own political credentials and expertise. However there’s nonetheless an inclination to have the extra demand that ladies in politics have these connections.
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