New Delhi: The year was 2016 when the whole of America had their hopes high, hopes to see a woman as the President of The United States, a position that many believe is the very pinnacle of power. But when that was not to be, there was a pall of gloom that enveloped an entire community. Women across the world, who wanted to see one of their own seated in that powerful position, were left wanting because Republican Donald Trump romped home with more votes to be declared as the President.
Trump is here again, and as luck would have it, he faces stiff challenge from a woman contender fielded by the Democrats, again. Will history repeat itself and let Trump have the last laugh or is there a spoiler that is waiting in the wings? The umpteen surveys being carried out is nothing to go by because every day there is a new headline being made. If we consider the gender split at the polls, even that is not giving us a clear picture as to who will emerge victorious. According to the latest poll by the New York Times/Siena College Poll, while Kamala Harris (54%) leads Donald Trump (42%) among women voters, Trump at 55 per cent leads Harris with only 41 per cent among men. As is evident, there is no saying what the outcome could be as final counting wraps up.
Women in the US, however, are very happy that at least the nomination of a lady for Presidentship is being normalised now in America and that’s like taking a huge leap of faith. Earlier, it was more of a surprise when Clinton was made the face of the campaign but now with Harris in the Democrats’ drivers seat, it all seems surreal but not shocking.
Talk of taking small steps!
US nervous about misogynist label?
In modern times, the US is the only superpower to not have had a female leader or head of state ever. If that is not an embarrassment for a country that is said to be liberal, the fact that they share this podium with countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Russia may be adding to the woes and the desperation of the US to break away from this gender bias list.
The other thing that must make the US nervous is the fact that other countries who do have women world leaders are marching ahead in romp and ceremony. How will the US ever be able to catch up with the other countries like
- Germany for instance, which has had not one but two top women leaders calling the shots at one time. There was Angela Merkel, as the only woman to lead a G20 country, and also Ursula von der Leyen who represents the EU as president of the European Commission.
- Canada and France, on the other hand, have each seen one woman take power and hand it over within a year, while Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was briefly acting president in South Africa.
- Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey have each had one female leader, serving between 3 and 5 years.
- The UK has been led by women twice, including 11 years under Margaret Thatcher.
- Argentina has had two female presidents, both succeeded their husbands.
- India’s only female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, served twice for a total of 16 years.
- Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have had women as heads of state.
So, is America facing the heat? It certainly must be. The present interplay of politics in the global south, where there is a new power centre emerging every day, is not going to make things easy for a nation that suffers from scepticism surrounding any ideological bias.
If you take power out of the equation, even optics-wise the United States must be feeling the need to get away from this gender bias tag. As a global leader who has been moral policing other nations about human rights’ issues, about ethnic violence and on ideological differences, the US also must be facing this inward challenge of maintaining their status as a liberal democracy. Until and unless they can lead by example, it will still be considered an eyewash for other countries around the globe.
It is indeed the right time for the people of US to make a conscious decision about breaking the glass ceiling and voting for a lady president but the campaigns have been far removed from this gendered debate. Harris has made it loud and clear, she wants to win solely on merit and riding on her policies and not only because she is a woman.
Has Harris downplayed gender and race card
Unlike Hilary Clinton, Harris has out rightly downplayed her gender and race. While some have hailed her political move as being the smart approach, there are others (even within her own party) who feel she could have taken it up as a major issue because it really is one for the US at the moment. Whatever the outcome, Harris has conscientiously avoided highlighting ‘identity politics’, because she knew election rivals would be quick to paint her as a ‘DEI hire’.
If Clinton wore her gender on the sleeves, and spoke of the bias openly, Harris has been visibly annoyed when queried about the same issues. She has made it a point to skirt questions about her gender and her race completely so. “Next question, please,” she had said during her first televised interview with Tim Walz when asked to respond to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s comment that she had “turned Black”.
It is not new for Harris to not take this as the narrative for her electioneering. It is a strategy that precedes her run for president. In 2017, when she was California’s attorney general, a few reporters had asked her what it was like to be the first woman on the job to which she had famously replied with “I really don’t know how to answer that question because you see, I’ve always been a woman, but I’m sure a man could do the job just as well.”
Kamala Harris knows well that to appeal to a ‘woke and progressive’ voter base in the US, she will have to be the face of all Americans and not just of women. Rightly so.
If Harris is smart, sagacious and liberal, she should be the automatic choice for America. The question is can we say the same about the US?
