A STEP CLOSER TO A FEMALE PRESIDENT
NOT only did she help shatter Donald Trump’s presidency, but Kamala Harris has shattered glass ceilings for women around the world. Last week I watched as, with a simple, “So help me God,” she was sworn in as America’s first female Vice President breaking down barriers that have held females back for so long.
Ever since George Washington became the country’s first leader 232 years ago, US power has been in the hands of men. But with Joe Biden’s inauguration with Harris as his running mate, women have finally been given some of the representation they are long overdue.
Not only has Harris become America’s most powerful female ever, but she is also the first black and first South Asian to hold the role. She was the fourth woman to appear on a major political party’s presidential ticket, following Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, Republican Sarah Palin in 2008 and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. Importantly, she is the first to win. Though her own run for the White House failed last year, Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, has since been embraced not only by Democrats, but some Republicans too.
Her party saw in her a reflection of themselves – one supported by women and, especially, black women.
Now in office, much is expected of the woman many feel will become America’s first female president.
There is little doubt she will be called to the front line of America’s battle to end racism, acting as a bridge-builder.
Four years of Trumpism has created divisions not seen since the 1960s, emboldening a new breed of white supremacists.
Such deaths as that of George Floyd at the hands of a white cop and the violent clashes that followed, have exposed how deeply racist America continues to be.
Many believe that as a former attorney general of California and former San Francisco district attorney, Harris’s long history on criminal justice seen through the eyes of being black and Asian will only serve to create a more equal legal system for Americans.
It will also help to undo many of the racially charged immigration policies, brought in by Trump, that saw infant children taken from their parents’ arms and placed in cages as they fought for asylum. But it is not without enormous challenges.
The failure of a majority of white Americans to not only denounce Trump’s shameful racist politics but to embrace them, is a hurdle that may take generations to overcome.
Harris knows what it feels like to suffer because of the colour of her skin, compounded further by being a woman in a male-dominated world.
But she has shown throughout her career as a prosecutor, that her ethnicity and gender are a motivator rather than a hindrance.
Most observers assume that Biden will effectively be his own Secretary of State given his extensive knowledge on foreign policy coupled with relationships built around the world.
But Harris brings with her a fresh approach to global issues. America has much work to do abroad after four years in which its former leader toadied up to murderous dictators at the cost of its historical allies.
The States needs to forge a very different global role than it has since 2016, going back to leading the way on climate change and world peace.
Already with the rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement, the green shoots of recovery appear to be growing.
Today, Americans, but more importantly, women are waking up to a new sense of optimism, knowing the second most powerful person in the country is in their corner. Harris’s election is a clear signal it is only a matter of when, not if, the leader of the free world will be a woman.