Madam Vice President

Jan 23

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
Where there is error, may we bring truth.
Where there is doubt, may we bring faith.
And where there is despair, may we bring hope."
~Margaret Thatcher
paraphrasing a St Francis Prayer in her Inauguration Speech May 4, 1979

I was born 18 days after Margaret Thatcher took office as the first female prime minister of Great Britain. I found my daughter's name reading the history of Indira Gandhi, the first and only female prime minister of India. I was that little girl who often answered that I wanted to be President when I grew up. It is over forty years later that we get to watch the first African-South Asian American woman take the second highest position in the land. While my excited heart attempts to burst from my chest it begs the question: Why has it taken so damn long? This is not an attempt at a political debate but simply an innocent question of why haven’t we let women lead?

We are born needing the intuitive nurturing of our mothers. We are the backbone of the family system which includes the selfless devotion of putting everyone’s needs before our own. I think it is an unhealthy side effect of our proverbial role but it sounds like fantastic training for a politician. We are the trusted confidants of the secrets, the problem solvers of our communities and master negotiators. Yet, women are passed over and deemed “too emotional” for the jobs that require difficult decisions. Get outta here! The passions of women have spurned community action for centuries. Our understanding of interconnectedness and resolving conflict make us important voices for such positions of leadership and vast civil responsibility.

As a measure of the difference let’s take a look at the Covid numbers from countries with female leaders:

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, declared her country covid free in just 100 days. She put scientists in charge of delegating where and how personnel & equipment should be used. When her large modern island country was safe she turned to the smaller islands around her with less resources to help them combat the disease. She understood that the virus doesn’t see borders and no one is safe until we are all safe.
Erna Solberg, aka Iron Erna, Prime minister of Norway, started testing for the virus in January nearly a month before their first known case and 8 weeks from the first death. Her conservative measures kept their death toll at just 98 people per million compared to the US rate of 1,218. She also reduced Norway’s oil production. Understanding that more oil means lower prices, so less production during this time was actually best for their economy.
Sanna Marin became the youngest leader in the world, elected as Finland’s prime minister at only 34 years old. Sanna’s efforts hold a similarly low death rate although slightly higher than Norway. Finland’s numbers pale in comparison to their neighbor Sweden who never locked down to avoid shuttering their economy and their death rate is 20x higher than that of their nordic neighbors.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the female prime minister of Bangladesh, is in her fourth term in office. This incredibly impoverished country has less than 8000 deaths on record for their 163 million residents. She is slowly but steadily lowering the poverty rate which is still nearly a quarter of the population.
Sahle-Work Zewde, the President of Ethiopia, has steadied the death rate at only 18 people per million. This is incredible considering the country is currently battling a humanitarian crisis with flooding and locusts devastating food sources and floods, displacing 300,000 Ethiopians.

I would be remiss to omit the Belgium Prime Minister, Sophie Wilmes, which has the highest deaths per capita. Clearly a country’s response to Covid cannot be reduced to the gender of their leader. But the point I’m trying to make is that we certainly can’t do worse than the efforts of our male counterparts. Women in most cultures are the inherent support system of the family unit and in some places the whole village. It’s in our DNA. We deserve a seat at the table of every board room, committee meeting and certainly in every room of our local, state and federal government.

To be liberated, woman must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity and her personality.
~Indira Gandhi

Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Slovakia, Trinidad-Tobago, Barbados, Myanmar, Bolivia, Taiwan, Serbia, Singapore, Nepal, Switzerland and Germany all currently have females in charge. France, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Ireland, Indonesia, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Pakistan, Israel, Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, South Korea and plenty more have had women leaders. So what the hell United States of America? If anything, let me appeal to your competitive nature. They are beating us at the “land of the free” game.

Let’s circle back to Norway with that colorfully awful comment by the last president about wanting more immigrants from Norway and not “shithole countries”. Why would Norwegians want to leave Norway? They have the highest standards of living, longest life expectancy, lowest unemployment and one of the highest GDP’s in the world. Iron Erna isn’t even the first female prime minister. They are an egalitarian society which believes strongly in social equality since traditionally the fishermen were out to sea and the wives were left to do everything else. Since the 1980’s at least 40% of their parliament is made up of women. Well that’s a screaming endorsement of what having women in the room can do for a nation.

Even Nepal’s first female president, which is mostly a ceremonial position, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, made a mandate that at least a third of their government seats be held by women and either hold the post of president or vice president as well. So why are we so late to the game? Many of the above countries still have very male dominated cultures so that can’t be an excuse. We need women who are passionate about leading change in this world. As a mom to two, strong-willed, independent girls, seeing a female vice president of color gives them confidence that inspires leadership. As a mom to a little boy I hope this will frame what government should look like for the rest of his long life. I’m hopeful that he will always see women in positions of leadership and never know his world was any different.

In a recent Brene Brown podcast she interviews Melinda Gates, an activist for gender equality around the world. She made a point that men tend to look at gender equality as a “soft” issue. Like enough work has been done that it’s not a pressing matter. She went on to say that at the rate we are moving, true gender equality in America is still over 200 years away. I’m sorry but that’s not good enough. We need to pick up the pace people. Our government buildings should look like the passengers on any given city bus.

Exhausted of the feeling that all politicians are self serving and don’t represent you? I too have felt disenfranchised, coming second to big business and wealthy donors. This year has shown us that we are not far removed from actions made by politicians we put in office. They are directly affecting our livelihood, schools, taxes and businesses. So I will make a promise to vote for people who don't look like me but do represent my community. I want to know that each table has an array of eyes acting as different lenses to the community they serve. I will be vigilant about my voice and use our political system to encourage change. And while we clearly have a long road to equalization, Kamala Devi Harris sure is an encouraging start.