Expert: Harris campaign must overcome ‘double bind’ to mount historic win
As the first black woman and person of South Asian descent to receive a major party nomination, as Democrats have virtually ensured, Vice President Kamala Harris will face unique challenges in minimizing attacks to her campaign, says Virginia Tech political expert Farida Jalalzai.
“She will face criticisms about being liberal, though she is fairly moderate, and this will be magnified because of her gender and race/ethnicity. She will have to try to balance her image. She will want to come across as strong but not too strong. Compassionate, but not too compassionate. That is the double bind. Even if she wins a competitive nomination, she will be relegated to Biden’s handpicked successor which diminishes her standing. She will have to balance support for his agenda but show that has her own ideas and is not a puppet.”
Jalalzai offers her perspective on why the U.S. has never had a female president and the obstacles women face that have kept them out of the Oval Office.
Why has it taken the United States so long to potentially put a woman in the role of Commander in Chief?
“The best way to answer this is to look around the world,” says Jalalzai. “Political institutions are important to women gaining executive power. Women disproportionately govern in dual executive systems, featuring both a president and prime minister. Power imbalances often relegate women to weaker positions compared to their male counterparts. Few women secure presidencies where they do not share power with a prime minister; those operating in systems where a president dominates almost always occupy the much weaker prime ministerial role.”
“The U.S. has a unified presidency and lots of the rhetoric about the U.S. presidency links to a masculine style of leadership and the role on the international stage as a leading nuclear and economic power heightens this. The number of women in Congress is growing and there are more women governors, but the pipeline is still pretty small.”
What are some obstacles that women have faced in the U.S. that have kept them out of the Oval Office?
“Women’s professional credentials may be more closely scrutinized as they pursue office,” says Jalalzai. “They usually have to present amazing qualifications to be seen as viable. They face sexist reporting and also discriminatory treatment by some political elites.”
“We cannot firmly establish that gender discrimination keeps women out of office, but I would say that is mainly because of the difficulty of setting up studies that can detect this. I wonder though if we simply underestimate what the public is willing to support. Perhaps we are more open-minded than we are given credit for. And we need to stop suggesting that women in general and women of color are not electable.”
What longer-term impacts could Kamala Harris’ candidacy, and potential presidency, offer?
“It is possible people will become more open to diverse candidates and backgrounds of presidents,” says Jalalzai. “Seeing a living role model of a black, South Asian woman as president can communicate that politics is more inclusive and that government is more legitimate because it is more representative. She may be more prone to articulate support for women’s issues and equality issues more in general.”
About Jalalzai
Farida Jalalzai is associate dean for global initiatives and engagement in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and professor of political science at Virginia Tech, focusing on the role of gender in the political arena including women national leaders. She is the author of several books on global women’s rights. Read more here.
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Contact Margaret Ashburn in the media relations office at mkashburn@vt.edu or 540-529-0814.
