Gender and Elections

When Kamala Harris took the stage on November 7, 2020, dressed in all white as a gesture to the suffragists who had worked so hard for this moment, she celebrated the breaking of “one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country” through her election as the first woman, the first Black, and the first South Asian vice president of the United States. She reflected on the women who had paved the way to her victory and the message that her success would send to young people – that they should “dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you.” She highlighted her own mother’s journey to America at age 19,