America, it is past time

Trailblazing women number amongst the greatest leaders in their countries’ modern history. The first female “head of government” of many of the world’s great democracies often put a stamp of the politics and international standing of their nations for generations. The United States differs from many of its peers in never advancing a female into the presidential or prime ministerial role, yet the same degree of change and improvement that occurred elsewhere could happen in America – if Kamala Harris prevails in November.

The critiques of being “unprepared” and “unqualified” leveled at the vice president, despite her decades in politics as compared to four years for Trump and two years for Vance, hardly rank as unique. Harris gains such insults because she is a woman, and her gender allows many misogynists to believe in a lack of capability. Such criticisms always backfire once the woman claims the high office.

The epithet of the “Grocer’s daughter from Grantham” haunted Margaret Thatcher until the “Iron Lady” showed that the Empire could strike back in the Falklands. She – nearly single-handedly – saved the British economy, and she did so at a time when her nation faced uncertainty in its standing amongst the nations in the world, as well as confidence about its continued economic viability amidst its own citizens at home. The United Kingdom in 1979 parallels the United States of 2024 in many ways, and Harris’ commitment to a strong military presence in Ukraine, Taiwan, NATO and across the planet against an increasingly isolationist domestic opposition mirrors Thatcher’s challenge. Russia was resurgent then as now, and she stood ready to meet the enemy, unlike her partisan opponents.

Indira Gandhi took power in the male-dominated Indian culture with most discounting the possibility of strength. India had never had a woman leader of government. The prime minister soon proved her skeptics wrong. As Pakistan mobilized for war, she not only reinforced the border, but aided the Bangladeshis in their fight for independence. Her stamp on India transformed the former colony into a military and political power, laying the foreign policy foundations of its eventual rise to world influence.

Of course, Gandhi could look southward for an example. Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon became the first female prime minister on the planet when she led her party to victory in the July 1960 general election. While her socialist policies have come under attack in recent years, much like Gandhi, she forged an independent Republic out of the post-colonial ethnic fighting between the Sinhalese and Tamil populations. Bandaranaike literally birthed the new nation of Sri Lanka, giving the equal Tamals citizenship, and her international negotiating efforts helped bring peace in the China-India conflict of 1962.

Women leaders have a way of reinvigorating nations questioning their future paths. When Angela Merkel came to power in Germany, questions of post-Cold War domestic reunification and the future of the new European Union dominated the conversation. She left office with the borders of the EU stretched to the Balkans, Bulgaria, and Romania – and her native East Germany fully engaged with its Western brethren.

Golda Meir played a huge role in the creation of the State of Israel from WWII onward. An American who made “aliyah” to build a Jewish state in the Holy Land, she became the voice of her people to the West. (Many gave money to Israel in the early years because what Jewish boy or girl could refuse a Jewish mother urging them to help his or her people in their historic lands?) When she came to the prime minister’s office after a long career in government, she led the fight for her nation’s survival in 1972 Yom Kippur War – which without her leadership might have seen Israel extinguished from the Earth.

The election of Corazon Aquino literally restored democracy to the Philippines, and she had to fight for it. U.S. and international pressure had forced dictator Ferdinand Marcos to hold elections, which he subsequently lost but would not leave office. Aquino had won, but she did not flee when the soldiers came. She rallied her country. People took to the streets. The military changed sides, and she took power in the yellow revolution – putting her country on the path to regular democratic elections to this day.

Countries as varied as Portugal, Bolivia, Iceland, Norway, Malta, Transkei, Central African Republic, Pakistan, Haiti, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Ireland, Bangladesh, Poland, Turkey, Burundi, Rwanda, Liberal, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Finland, Ukraine, New Zealand, and Canada have enjoyed the leadership of female heads of state and government. It is long past time that the United States of America join that list, and with her long experience in public service from district attorney to attorney general to U.S. senator to vice president, Madam Vice President Kamala Harris stands ready to number amongst these world leaders.

This article originally published in the July 29, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.