The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2020 — 9
statement
I
n 2016, just four years shy of the hun-
dred-year anniversary of the ratifica-
tion of the 19th amendment, Ameri-
cans witnessed history as the first woman ever
was nominated as a presidential candidate by
a major political party.
America also saw her lose, and for many,
it was all hell breaking loose. Never mind the
apparent misogynist who was her opponent,
many Americans were heartbroken and hope-
less seeing a woman rise so high, reaching a
place where no woman had been allowed to
ascend before, only to be rebuffed so brazenly
and with such hostility. On top of the heart-
break of coming so close to making history
and breaking one of the last intact glass ceil-
ings, many were fearful of what the next four
years would look like — and rightfully so.
On election night 2016, I tried my best to
stay awake, even as moods darkened when
supposedly blue-leaning swing states swung
red. Even then, as I drifted off to sleep, there
was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I
was finally going to see a woman elected as
the president of the United States, and thank-
fully, one who was guided by feminist prin-
ciples and advocated for progressive policies.
When I woke up the next morning, my heart
sank into my stomach and my throat felt like
it was closing; like so many women and oth-
er marginalized people, I knew exactly how
high the stakes really were.
It was devastating, soul-crushing and
deeply distressing.
Now, nearly four years later, there is once
again a woman making history at the top of
the ballot. On Aug. 11, former vice president
Joe Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris, D-
Calif., as his running mate. Introducing her
at their first press conference together as his
ticket’s vice president, Biden said, “One of the
reasons that I chose Kamala is that we both
believe that we can define America simply in
one word: possibilities.”
Even before any vote is cast, Harris’s nomi-
nation is historic: She is the both the first
Black woman and the first Indian woman to
be nominated for vice president by a major
political party. If Biden is elected president,
she will be the first woman to serve in one of
the highest roles in our nation as the first fe-
male vice president.
Nodding toward this legacy, Biden also
said, “This morning, all across the nation,
little girls woke up, especially little Black and
brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and
undervalued in their communities. But today
just maybe they’re seeing themselves for the
first time in a new way: as the stuff of presi-
dents and vice presidents.”
In an effort to understand the impact of
Harris’s nomination, I spoke to several Uni-
versity of Michigan students about their
thoughts on Biden choosing Harris to be his
running mate and what her vice presidency
might mean.
In an email to The Michigan Daily, Jake
Riegel, an LSA sophomore studying American
Culture and a member of Students for Biden
on campus, wrote about what Biden’s selec-
tion shows.
“... The Democratic Party is proving itself
to be the party of diversity and inclusion,” Rie-
gel wrote. “I do feel more excited (to vote for
Joe Biden), because Senator Harris was my
preferred vice presidential candidate.”
Riegel also commented on the historic na-
ture of her candidacy.
“It is significant that Joe Biden picked Ka-
mala Harris, both because she is Black and
South Asian, as well as a woman, but I am
more excited because of her qualifications.
She is ultimately qualified for both the posi-
tion as vice president and president.”
While many are excited about the progress
Harris’s nomination means for women in poli-
tics, others are a bit more cautious. LSA fresh-
man Eva Hale, also a member of Students for
Biden, touched on this idea in an interview.
“A woman still hasn’t been elected (as pres-
ident), and if Joe and Kamala win, she still
wouldn’t have been elected,” Hale said. “The
fact that a lot of women were competitive for
the presidential nomination this year is great
— I guess it shows we’re getting there, but we
can’t say we’re there yet.”
While Harris’s nomination makes her a
trailblazer for women’s political representa-
tion, she is not, however, the first woman to
be nominated as a vice presidential running
mate. In fact, there have been two women be-
fore her who were selected to be on a major
party ticket. The stories of these two women’s
nominations could not be more different, but
the country’s reaction to them provides im-
portant context for Harris’s nomination and
potential election.
In 1984, then-Congresswoman Geraldine
Ferraro, a Democrat from New York, was se-
lected by Walter Mondale to be his running
mate. Before this selection, Ferraro, a former
schoolteacher and sex crimes prosecutor,
quickly rose in the Democratic party’s lead-
ership, becoming the Secretary of the House
Democratic Caucus.
It was not long before she faced misog-
yny on the campaign trail. On top of sex-
ist coverage about her clothes and her hair,
she was asked by a voter if she could bake a
blueberry muffin because “down here in Mis-
sissippi the men don’t cook.” On Meet the
Press, one moderator questioned whether she
could push the nuclear button and if Mondale
would have chosen her if she weren’t a wom-
an. Articles were written asking if America
was “ready” for a female vice president, some-
thing pundits continue to ask to this day, just
as they asked if America was ready for a Black
president when then-Senator Obama ran in
2008.
The sexism didn’t only come from the
press; it also came from her opponent’s cam-
paign: Vice President Bush’s spokesperson,
Peter Teeley, said, “She’s too bitchy. She’s
very arrogant. Humility isn’t one of her strong
points, and I think that comes through.”
Ambitious women frequently receive these
sorts of remarks from men like Teeley — men
who view women who dare to step out of their
socially-constructed place with contempt and
vitriol.
Indicative of the tightrope she was forced
to walk as a woman vying for one of the high-
est offices in the land, Ferrero often referred
to herself as “a housewife from Queens.” She
could not be too openly ambitious. She need-
ed to be careful not to be perceived as threat-
ening the status quo of men holding almost
all political power. She could not even defend
herself against sexist attacks; in 2008, she re-
flected on the experience saying, “In 1984, I
couldn’t say, ‘Stop it,” because I couldn’t look
like I was whining or upset about it.”
On top of the criticism she faced solely as
a result of being a woman, Ferraro’s nomina-
tion, while historic, was essentially doomed
from the beginning. Trailing Reagan, Mondale
decided he needed to shake up the race by
picking a female running mate, an effort to
clinch the excitement of Democratic voters.
The effort failed, though, in part due to Mon-
dale’s own strategic blunders, resulting in the
Mondale-Ferraro ticket only winning 13 elec-
toral votes in the Electoral College.
While Mondale’s own candidacy was ill-
fated from the beginning due to the country
experiencing short-term economic growth
from the Reagan-era tax cuts, picking a wom-
an to be your running mate as a last-ditch ef-
fort to save your candidacy is nothing to be
applauded. It is objectifying and indicates a
level of contempt for women voters by think-
ing that they will rush to your side for picking
a lady to be on the ticket.
And yet, 24 years later, another woman was
selected as a vice presidential running mate
for the same reason: Sarah Palin.
In 2008, then-Senator and candidate John
McCain selected Palin to be his running mate,
though his first-choice pick was Joe Lieber-
man, a centrist from Connecticut. He ulti-
mately picked then-Governor of Alaska Sarah
Palin because, as one GOP strategist said, he
“clearly felt like (the campaign) needed to
shake this race up and go for broke.” Picking a
woman to be his running mate as a Republican
nominee certainly raised eyebrows, but also
initially elicited positive feedback, with Mc-
Cain’s campaign receiving a bit of a boost in
the aftermath of this selection.
Again, though, Palin was set up to fail. At
the time of the pick, McCain was consistently
trailing behind Obama in polling, dragged
down for his party association with Bush as
the economy barreled toward collapse in the
fall of 2008. McCain needed a splashy pick to
try to bring some enthusiasm and new inter-
est to his campaign.
On top of tasking her with saving his de-
clining candidacy, McCain thrust Palin into
the spotlight with relatively little vetting and
preparedness. Of course, as a governor, there
was little excuse as to why Palin could not
name a single newspaper or magazine she
regularly read in a now-famous interview
with Katie Couric, where she said she read
“all of them, any of them.”
Still, the McCain campaign famous-
ly failed to fully vet Palin as they had scram-
bled to find a pick after several other candi-
dates fell through, using her as less of an equal
partner or colleague and more as a shiny new
toy to dazzle voters and the press.
Despite the time between Ferraro’s histo-
ry-making nomination and Palin joining Mc-
Cain’s ticket, female candidates were still sub-
ject to similar instances of sexism by the media
and voters on the campaign trail. In reflection
on the 2008 campaign, which also included
Hillary Clinton’s first presidential run, Fer-
raro said, “Even when (the media was) so sex-
ist to Hillary, and we said something about it,
they still thought we were whining or acting
like sore losers ... But I never thought we’d
have the opportunity to see another woman
go through it, this same election cycle, after
the press had been put on notice,” referencing
when Charlie Gibson of ABC News asked Pal-
in how somebody could manage a family of
seven and the vice presidency.
It is true that one’s political party rarely
protects female candidates from sexist cov-
erage or attacks, but a female candidate’s
political party, particularly due to the policy
preferences she holds, are decisive in de-
termining whether her election is a victory
for women and for feminism. Though some
who are not particularly well-read on femi-
nist scholarship will claim the election of a
woman — any woman — automatically means
progress for women’s rights, this assertion is
deeply misguided and factually wrong. The
election of Sarah Palin, an anti-choice, far-
right Republican, would not have been a win
for women. As vice president, she would
have advocated for positions in the McCain
administration that would have systemati-
cally stripped women, as well as other mar-
ginalized groups, of their rights and liberties,
particularly on issues of reproductive justice,
voting rights, environmental justice and eco-
nomic justice.
Women’s political interests are only ben-
efitted when women who will work toward
gender equality and autonomy are elected.
statement
On Kamala Harris:
A moment of
redress for women
BY MARISA WRIGHT,
STATEMENT DEPUTY EDITOR
ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com