The male faces of America’s first 44 presidents flashed across the big screen one after the other in black and white, before the sound of breaking glass filled the arena, revealing Hillary Clinton’s smiling face in full technicolor.
The message to the Democratic National Convention in 2016 was clear. As the first female presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party, Clinton was destined to break the glass ceiling that had stood firm since George Washington took his oath on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789.
Eight years after Clinton lost to Donald Trump, Kamala Harris didn’t even mention that she would be the first woman president in her acceptance speech at the party convention.
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They tried it in two very different ways. One leaning into identity politics and the other leaning away.
And still, the highest, toughest glass ceiling remains unbroken.
The reason is that while the campaigns for both Harris and Clinton were looking forward to a new dawn in the White House when common sense prevails and gender is irrelevant, Trump and, latterly, JD Vance, were looking to the past.
Let’s not be fooled. Women may have voted against Harris because of her policies on the economy, immigration, or even abortion. Few would have abandoned her because of her sex.
But men would. And Trump knew that. Why else would he have spent so much time and money courting young males? He didn’t gripe when Joe Rogan insisted he go to Austin, Texas, to record his podcast interview in person.
Harris didn’t have the time or perhaps the inclination. She wasn’t thinking about gender or she didn’t think about it enough.
Trump painted a dark vision of America’s future while waxing nostalgic about the past. There’s a reason he said he would “protect” women “whether the women like it or not.” There’s a reason Vance made such a play of “childless cat ladies.”
“I will protect women at a level never seen before,” Trump told supporters in North Carolina in September.
In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Trump said foreign leaders would treat Harris like a “play toy.”
“They look at her and they say we can’t believe we got so lucky. They’re gonna walk all over her,” he continued before looking into the camera and adding: “I don’t want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it.”
He called Harris “weak” and “dumb as a rock.” Even if he didn’t say it was because she was a woman, he would have been aware that the sexist strain of his support would understand with a nod and a wink.
The GOP campaign was conjuring up images of the 1950s, when men went to work and the little lady stayed at home with the kids. This is the America of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, when being woke was just something everyone did before breakfast.
The retro theme was fostered by Fox News, with hosts like Jesse Watters saying he would consider it tantamount to an affair if his wife voted for Harris.
All the time, Harris was sidestepping identity politics. She saw a brighter future for the country, irrespective of whether you were male or female.
“The experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, [voters] want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world,” she told NBC News two weeks ago.
“Well, I’m clearly a woman,” she added. “The point that most people really care about is can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on them.”
That much is certainly true of most women, dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, and, indeed, Republicans.
But the 2024 presidential election outcome suggests that many men still have a lot of growing up to do. Perhaps the only way that glass ceiling is finally going to crack is with a strong Republican woman winning the hearts of other women and fighting men on their own terms. Going on the offensive, with every meaning of the word.
Historically around the world, conservative women break the head of government glass ceiling because at first voters are only willing to elect a woman who will uphold traditional gender roles. Think Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. and Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
And then ironically, that conditions people to see women as leaders, which paves the way for liberal women to get elected. Either way, it could be a long road to the future that both Harris and Clinton promised.
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