Kamala Harris was a candidate of many firsts, together with the primary Black and South Asian lady 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 ladies political leaders and gender in politics, to raised perceive the importance of Harris’ defeat – and the way the U.S. stands other than different international locations which have had feminine leaders.
Kamala Harris supporters react to the election outcomes on Nov. 5, 2024.
Angela Weiss/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
How vital was Kamala Harris’ gender in her loss?
I can’t say it was a principal cause she misplaced. However what I can say is it was an element that contributed to her lack of help, particularly if you evaluate her efficiency with Joe Biden’s in the identical locations and with virtually the entire 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 to be on the world stage. He used plenty 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 shocked that the glass ceiling for girls in politics continues to be tremendous sturdy within the U.S. That is an instance of the nation’s limits of creating true progress on girls’s empowerment and equality. After all, the truth that Harris was a girl of coloration vying to be the primary lady president of the U.S. is pertinent.
Trump asserted that the nation wants a powerful man to steer. He portrayed Harris as a liberal extremist and usually received the message by {that a} lady wouldn’t be as much as the job of president.
When Geraldine Ferraro ran as the primary feminine vice presidential candidate nominated by a significant celebration in 1984, there have been plenty of questions on whether or not she can be robust sufficient on the world stage. Now, there are nonetheless questions on whether or not a girl can be robust sufficient to steer.
How does this election evaluate with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 marketing campaign towards Trump?
In 2016, Hillary Clinton highlighted the historic nature of a girl working 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 lately defined this by saying, “Well, I’m clearly a woman. The point that most people really care about is can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on 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 assume he would obtain the nomination, not to mention win the overall election that yr. We see now that Trump is the brand new regular of the Republican Social gathering. Extra average Republicans, resembling Liz Cheney, are additionally not in energy anymore. The celebration has change into extra excessive.
Is the nation shifting backward on gender equality, or is it caught in impartial?
A couple 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 trouble some sufficient – is a priority. Trump additionally stated excessive issues about girls in 2016, together with calling Hillary Clinton “a nasty woman.” 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.
A cardboard cutout of Kamala Harris stands in a bar in Philadelphia, Pa., within the early hours of Nov. 6, 2024.
Matthew Hatcher/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Ladies have led different international locations. What makes the U.S. totally different?
The U.S. is a nuclear energy and a significant army and financial power. These realms are usually stereotyped by some as masculine. The president stands atop the U.S. political system and is immediately elected. Ladies leaders typically ascend by appointment as prime ministers in parliamentary techniques. One of many vulnerabilities of prime ministers is that their phrases in workplace are much less safe. The traits deemed becoming for these roles – looking for compromise, for instance – could show much less of a problem to girls than they might in the event that they have been looking for to be president of a strong nation just like the U.S. on the world stage.
At the moment, solely two girls presidents who govern in presidential techniques have been immediately elected, and they’re in Honduras and Mexico. The previous is a former first woman, and the latter has robust ties to her predecessor. Whereas girls have been presidents of nations, a number of, resembling the present presidents of Ethiopia, India and Greece, are primarily symbolic. These positions are very totally different from the U.S. presidency, which has a extra dominant function.
Additionally it is fairly unusual for a girl 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. Once you have a look at Laura Chinchilla, the previous president of Costa Rica, or former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, what linked plenty of these feminine politicians is that they have 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 instances, and plenty of these girls introduced in their very own political credentials and expertise. However there may be nonetheless an inclination to have the extra demand that ladies in politics have these connections.