Elizabeth Warren. Kamala Harris. Kirsten Gillibrand. Tulsi Gabbard.
Four democratic Congresswomen who have all announced their candidacy for president in 2020 or their intention to form an exploratory committee, and there’s still a possibility more will step forward, such as Amy Klobuchar.
So far, the amount of women is double that of 2016, which produced the only female candidate nominated by a major political party — Hillary Clinton.
In a CBS News article, Kelly Dittmar, an associate professor at Rutgers University, said having multiple women candidates of different ages, races and ideological positions would “push back against the sort of homogeneous ideal type” of a woman running for higher office, such as the presidency.
“I think that any time we have more women running, and greater diversity among those women, it just challenges those monolithic conceptions of what it means to be a woman candidate,” Dittmar said. “It’s more about the lens by which they’re going to be viewing, talking about, and in fact creating their own policy agenda.”
Olivia Heersink | Argonaut
It doesn’t matter if one of these women win an official party nomination or the actual presidency — although I’d like to see either — they’ve already chipped away at the allusive glass ceiling by throwing their hats in the ring.
More importantly, they’re teaching young women and girls to be resilient, especially in the face of adversity.
The last election seemed like a step backward for women, with President Donald Trump assuming office rather than Clinton despite her winning the popular vote by a substantial margin.
Instead, it spurred women forward into the political arena, which is partially why so many are declaring their candidacy. They are fed up with men speaking and making decisions for them — and frankly, so am I.
This is also exhibited by the record number of women — 110, with 83 in the House of Representatives and 23 in the Senate — who headed to Congress after winning their individual elections in November 2018, occupying just under a quarter of the total seats.
So far, only 325 women have served in Congress, the Center for American Women and Politics reports. The first was in 1916, with Jeannette Rankin.
According to a Pew Research survey, 59 percent of American adults believe there are too few women in high political offices — a sentiment I share.
While I don’t believe someone should be president solely on the basis of their sex, I think more Americans need to be open to the idea of a woman in the Oval Office. The candidates stepping forward for 2020 would work tirelessly to better the country, not tearing it apart like the current administration.
Next year, women will celebrate 100 years of having the right to vote — what better way to honor the 19th Amendment than by finally electing a female president.
The time is now, and the future is female — just ask the Democratic Party.
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected]