Amidst the chaos and rhetoric of the past few weeks, I don’t want to lose sight of an important historic event, our first female Vice President. As I’ve had time to reflect on the monumental significance of seeing Kamala Harris sworn in, I am also feeling a bit disheartened how long it has taken to have a female voice in the White House. As I watched the inauguration, I certainly realized the gravity of the situation; watching the first woman, the first Black and Asian woman, being sworn in to the executive branch as VP. But then I found myself thinking, why should this be so unusual and why did it take so long?
Half of the people in this country are women, yet we are still so underrepresented in our government. It took 100 years from the time we were given the right to vote until we had a woman in the White House. It is progress, yes, but it is slower than it should be. And, as with the situation of Kamala Harris, it often occurs that a woman who is promoted is replaced with a man. This will leave a complete void of Black women in the US Senate; something that is not acceptable given the critical role Black women have, for so long, played in our democracy.
As a person who has dedicated my career to investing in the wellbeing of our children, I was also deeply moved seeing Amanda Gorman stand there, shining as a centerpiece and a beacon of hope in the 2021 Inauguration. She acknowledged that many people invested in her, and now she stands, like Kamala Harris, as an example for girls, especially girls of color, throughout our country. When we invest in children, especially children who are facing difficult odds or who were not born with deep privilege, we do create a different future. In many ways, it’s where our work towards equal representation truly begins.
I would love to hear from all of you – how did you feel watching the swearing in of our first female Vice President? What do you think it says about where we are as a culture and how might it affect the fight for equal representation?
I had the great fortune of seeing the swearing-in of Vice President Harris through the eyes of my four daughters, ages 7 to 19. We watched together and paid close attention to what this means for us as women in this country. We also reflected that a century has elapsed since earning the basic right to vote. Kamala shared, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.” This certainly resonated with my daughters. Even my seven-year-old watched with great intention and said to me “This means I can be all 3 things I want to be when I grow up Mommy: a vet, a police office AND the President”. I smiled with great pride because even she recognized that the world (and possibilities) are different now. I was overwhelmed with the gravity of this moment, realizing how long it took to get to where we are now, and the amount of work that lies ahead. It is a marathon, not a sprint and the intentions for these “possibilities” start at home, are supported by schools and in the workplace, and lead to cultural transformation for the generations ahead!