Falling Back, 56. A Woman in High Office.

In 1920, The United States passed the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, allowing women to vote. In 2020, the first women vice president has been elected. A hundred years. 

Not that women haven't run for the highest office before. Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984. They didn't have a snowball's chance in hell against Reagan that year, though. And Geraldine was constantly scrutinized and asked if she was "tough enough" to run for office. Women were still considered too "soft."

But that was in the United States. In two nations where, through tradition, women were, and still are, considered second class citizens, women have already ruled as prime ministers. India had Indira Ghandi, until her assassination in 1984. Pakistan was ruled by Benazir Bhutto in 1988, and again in the 1990's. 

Europe has already had a number of women heads of government, as well. Mary Robinson of Ireland, Angela Merkel of Germany, Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain. Yet, in the United States, women are still considered "less" fit for high public office, it seems. 

While Hillary Clinton won the popular vote four years ago, she was also rejected by many for being Bill Clinton's wife, and for being a cold, calculating woman. It seems like women can never win. If they're too compassionate, they're too soft. If they're too professional, they're too cold. I think the only reason Joe Biden's ticket with Kamala Harris was accepted, was because the other choice was four more years of insanity.

It's sad, really. After we finally get the first Black president, the backlash is to retreat into the most conservative and reactionary corner by electing a man unfit to be president, rather than the first woman president. That does say something about society.

It says that after fifty years of fighting for equality before the law and society, women are still at the back of the line. It says that a woman is worth less than a man. It says that the patriarchal society is still standing strong. But, the island it stands on is getting smaller, as the sea of feminism eats away at its clods. With each arrival of a woman in a high office, or any office, where none have been before, women show that they are as capable as men of doing the same work. They are also as capable of being incompetent, though. The only problem is that an incompetent woman is shown the door faster than an incompetent man.

The other landmark in the election of Kamala Harris as vice president, is the fact that she is of mixed immigrant heritage. Her father was Jamaican, her mother Indian. Kamala is the daughter of immigrants to the fabled land, just as Geraldine Ferraro was the daughter of an Italian immigrant. It's not just old white, third or fourth generation men, now. American means many things. It means Black, European, Asian, Latin American, African, and Native American, and both men and women. This doesn't mean that all those have it easy now, but rather that they can be represented by their own. It means that, at some point, America is on the path to true racial, and sexual equality. It will take time after this recent setback, but the path is open before us. We now need to make sure there are no more setbacks, and that we all work together to move forward. Someday, it will become a promised land, again. 

Life continues.