Friday, January 24, 2025
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the waiting room of a car repair shop with my dad, minding my own business, as one does while waiting to pick up a car that’s being worked on. There were a few other customers there, most of them quiet and keeping to themselves, but one man, sitting to my right, was running his mouth about politics.
Obviously happy that Donald Trump had won the presidential election, the man said something along the lines of, “It’s a good thing Kamala Harris didn’t win, because no one would ever respect her” — due simply to the fact that she’s a woman.
If I’d been in the mood for an argument, I probably would’ve said something like, “I sure hope you don’t have any daughters or a wife at home who’d love to hear you say that.” But alas, I didn’t want to get into a conflict with a stranger, so I kept my mouth shut, and on the way out the door a few minutes later, my dad and I laughed to ourselves about how ridiculous the guy sounded.
Like everyone else, I had my thoughts going into this election cycle, and truthfully, it doesn’t matter whom I voted for, because it’s a done deal at this point.
Sure, there are men, like the one we encountered, who have their misogynistic beliefs that women are unfit for office. But I’ve found that it’s not just men who are dismissing the ability of a likely qualified and certainly accomplished woman to run a country.
It’s women, just like me, who have serious doubts about their own gender. I’ve seen and heard from many of them, “I’m a woman, and I could never vote for a woman.”
I’m seldom at a loss of words, but that has stumped me. I am extraordinarily thankful that my sister and I grew up in a household in which we were told that we could accomplish anything, so long as we set our minds to it and put in the work. I am so thankful to be surrounded by extraordinary women, like my mother, my grandmother, many aunts and lots of cousins, who are successful and honest and righteous people.
It’s a shame, I think, that somewhere along the way, the man at the shop and the women who are reinforcing such a negative, internal bias didn’t have that same guidance. And if they did, then something else has failed them.
My entire life, I’ve been inspired by the people around me, as well as the women — the trailblazers — who are making our world a better, more inclusive place. And it really is a shame that a large chunk of our population still believes that someone who’s deserving of a prestigious role, like the presidency, should be denied that simply because she’s a woman.
If you voted for Donald Trump because you believe in his policies and his vision for America, that’s fine — and that’s your right as an American. But if you voted for him simply because you found yourself unable to support a woman, for whatever reason, then, boy, are we in serious trouble. That’s an insult to every woman who’s come before you — every woman who’s willed her way through glass ceilings, and endured hardship after hardship, solely on the basis of sex.
I’m a big reader and thinker, and I implore anyone who thinks so negatively about the abilities and strength of women to pick up a book. Read “The Nightingale,” by Kristin Hannah, and be blown away by a tale of courage. Read “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz,” by Lucy Adlington, and learn a true story of sewing for survival. Read “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, and think about what life could be like if we let misogyny win.
In a world where the impossible can become possible, little girls should know that they can be whoever they want to be, career women, moms, a blend of both — or the top candidate on a presidential ticket.
The election results aside, women soldier on. We must actively challenge the biases, in ourselves and others, that continue to hold us back. Only then can we create a future in which every woman knows that her voice matters and her potential has no limits.
Jordan Vallone is a senior editor of the Herald Community Newspapers. Comments? jvallone@liherald.com.
