[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: Women's Rights on the Ballot
August 28, 2024
The polls show it: women's votes will be a decisive factor in the 2024 elections. With so much at stake—and with abortion and women’s rights on the ballot—Ms. is here to deliver the latest need-to-know elections news for feminists, every Wednesday.
‘The Future Is Here!’: America Is Finally Ready for a Woman President [[link removed]]
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Harris delivers the eulogy for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; while former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries look on, at Fallbrook Church in Houston on Aug. 1, 2024. (Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
By Jodi Enda | Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party. A proud feminist, she embraced the trailblazing nature of her campaign, portraying it as a quest to break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” But winning the popular vote still didn’t enable her to shatter the glass. A greater equality, the dream of generations of women, remained just that—a dream. Another woman would have to make it come true.
This week, in what might have been the waning days of her second term, Clinton declared in a full-throated speech at the Democratic National Convention, that “the future is here.” It is Kamala Harris, she said, who can smash that centuries-old ceiling once and for all.
Vice President Harris, a strong feminist in her own right, is running less as a female candidate than as a nominee who just happens to be a woman—and a woman of color, at that. Democrats, overwhelmingly jubilant at their Chicago nominating convention, told me that they think it’s a winning strategy. Times have changed since 2016, they said.
Have they?
It is true that Harris isn’t burdened by the baggage that Clinton carried, female-centric stereotypes that stuck to her like gum to a shoe, dating from her years as first lady, senator and secretary of state. Harris is something of a blank slate who is reintroducing herself to the American people in a way that, Democrats hope, they will find both positive and palatable.
Yes, palatable. Even in 2024, women candidates—like all women in positions of power—must come across as not only competent, right and smart, but as palatable. Another word for that is “likable.” During Clinton’s campaign in 2016, many voters told pollsters and journalists (including this one) that they’d vote for a woman, “just not that woman.” It’s a common refrain that is being put to the test yet again.
Still, the obstacle of “running while female” might be ameliorated by some big things that have happened since Clinton sought the White House, convention delegates, pollsters and women’s advocates told me.
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How Kamala Harris Is Changing the 2024 Electorate [[link removed]] Democratic Party Platform Centers Women’s Rights [[link removed]]
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The Bipartisan Election-Year Infrastructure Issue: Childcare [[link removed]] Tim Walz’s DNC Speech Was a Masculinity-Themed Populist Pep Talk [[link removed]]
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Lessons from the DNC: How Abortion Protects Us From the Choices We Can’t Make [[link removed]] Trump Using AI Images of Taylor Swift Highlights a New Era of Election Disinformation [[link removed]]
What we're reading:
Because it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. Here's what we're reading this week:
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"Women’s
Equality
Day
reminds
us
of
the
need
for
federal
and
state
Equal
Rights
Amendments”
—
MinnPost
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[link removed] [[link removed]] Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on
Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
In this episode, we’re joined by two co-hosts of the Webby Award-winning #SistersInLaw podcast to discuss where our nation stands as we approach the 2024 elections—from the ongoing trials faced by former president Donald Trump, to Nikki Haley, to the Supreme Court’s recent opinions and so much more.
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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