Former GOP South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is running for President. In terms of the overall race, we have no idea what that could mean, it seems early to even guess. She was Trump’s Ambassador to the UN, and is the daughter of immigrant parents. When she left her post as UN Ambassador in 2018, it was seen as her first move to run for President. Haley is quoted as saying about Trump, “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him.”
I remember when Walter Mondale chose a woman to be his running mate, her name was Geraldine Ferraro. That was a big deal, very exciting. Years earlier, I even have vague memories of Shirley Chisolm running for President. I was very young, and growing up in Washington, D.C, it felt to me that it was her race that was important. And of course it was. That she was a woman didn’t seem to me as significant. But Chisolm has been quoted as saying, “Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.”
Hillary Clinton’s candidacies showed us much about ourselves. Always a feminist, it was during those years that I woke up, and it really became clear to me how far we have to go.
Below is a drawing I did during Obama’s administration. It seemed —and we discussed it as a country—that maybe the only way we can get a woman as President is if she is married to a President. Michelle was and is a very viable candidate (although she says she doesn’t want the job).
It was thrilling when Joe Biden invited Kamala Harris to his ticket, and then they won. As Vice President, she is not in the public eye a lot, but she is a strong force not to be discounted.
Although being a woman in politics now is more common, sexist and misogynistic baggage still swarm around women candidates and politicians. It’s horrible and frustrating. The language and attitudes of sexism are now often more subtle, but they are there—cultural assumptions are hard to break, they get passed on in generations, among friends, over and over again.
We’ve come a long way since 1912, the time of the cartoon by Lou Rogers at the top of my post. A woman political cartoonist, Rogers’ drawing was not so much about women running for office, as women participating in politics. I.e., voting. It was seen as unseemly for women (such delicate flowers, supposedly, and in need of protection) to vote or even have an opinion about government or politics. I wonder if Rogers could even dream of a woman running for President.
We need more women—and LBGTQ folks— in the house. We need more diversity in our government! I’m not a fan of Nikki Haley’s, but rather a fan of her having the right and the acceptance to run. As alarmed (and annoyed) as I was that Sarah Palen was chosen by John McCain as his VP running mate in 2008, I was happy to see women in the mix.
These advances keep us talking and help us understand our biases. And maybe, just maybe, change them.
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