Chicago- August 25, 2024
Is 2024 the year a woman will be elected president of the United States? A majority say America is ready for a woman president, but will it finally happen? People have doubts.
Last year, 1 in 4 American adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center said it is extremely or very likely they will see a woman president in their lifetime. Of course, last year’s thought experiment has turned into a real-life contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Harris is not only a woman, but she is also of Jamaican and Indian descent. The question becomes: Is America ready not only for a woman, but for a woman of color to serve as president?
The hurdles are seen as significantly higher for Black women than for white women, according to a Pew Research survey. Many a think piece has been devoted to the idea that our first woman president would be a white Republican woman, but that opportunity for 2024 was extinguished with Nikki Haley’s primary loss to Trump.
Instead, the possibility exists for a biracial Democratic woman to break that final gender barrier, but it won’t be easy.
If you have ever noticed that Harris has a uniform similar in style to the Hillary Clinton pantsuit, it is because women don’t have the luxury of looking like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with mittens. Voters expect women to be pulled together on the campaign trail and in office.
Americans haven’t seen a woman in the role of commander in chief, which makes it more difficult for them to visualize – something the Barbara Lee Foundation refers to as “the imagination barrier.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came close in 2016 and, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “Sometimes you have to fight a battle more than once to win.”
