Madam President Must Earn Her Seat

Rosa Elera/Contributing Writer

Women have been working toward fixing a system constructed to keep them off positions of power, the toughest being a political seat. 

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump were attending rallies around the nation to encourage voters. Unlike Trump, Clinton’s campaign was directed toward the progress of minorities and the unequal, a message directed mainly at women’s progress and equality with her slogan — I’m with Her.  

Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State, accompanied Clinton in her New Hampshire rally and uttered the now viral phrase, “It’s not done. There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!” This phrase struck a nerve with many women across the nation including myself. Albright wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining her phrase was taken out of context and were said in the wrong place at the wrong time but she stood by her words. 

As women in our country continue to work hard to make a place for themselves and be valued as equals to their male counterparts, messages like these do not help. If anything, they are creating potholes in the roads that have been paved by women before us.

Women don’t want to be given a seat at the table because of their gender, but because they earned to be at that table. We want to see the same of our political leaders and our future Madam President. 

There have been strong similarities shared among those who see Senator Elizabeth Warren as a possible 2020 version of Clinton. Warren has been a strong proponent of universal health care and women’s reproductive rights. 

The main question is, if nominated, will Warren play the woman card with the same constant assurance as Clinton? In comparison to the other two women running for the Democratic presidential nominee pick, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris, Warren has referred back to the setbacks she’s faced because she is a woman. She recently shared how she was fired from a teaching position back in 1971 because she was pregnant.

It’s true that as women we can empathize with this situation, but that doesn’t take away the fact we want to see policies changed. When policies are created and passed, situations like these are prevented from occurring again to other women. 

When we look into women Democratic candidates, Warren and Harris have introduced or co-sponsored bills that would improve the conditions and lives of many women. Klobuchar has succefully passed laws to stop human trafficking which affects many women in our community. It’s an issue we might not even know exists, but it’s actually a main concern for women in Miami-Dade County. 

We as young women always have to aim to be heard and given an opportunity, even in our own classrooms where we might be spoken over by a fellow male classmate. We constantly have to prove even to ourselves that we have done enough for our voices to be heard and considered. The work we’ve put in should be the only factor we need to voice our concerns and opinions. We must prove that, while being a woman is a part of our identity, it doesn’t define us as a whole because we are much more than that.

When we have this, no one can tell us that we got the position, got promoted, or got the raise because we are a woman. Years of sacrifice and hard work will do the talking for us.

Featured photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.

 

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