By Yahairah Aristy
When I was a young girl, I did not question that the president was a man — that was the norm. As I grew older, I thought how great it would be if a woman was elected president. This thought was met with longing coupled with pragmatism. Interestingly, in all the years I was in school, there was no mention of the fact that in 1872, Victoria Woodhull was the first female presidential candidate.
Nor was there any mention of Belva Lockwood, the second woman to run for president in 1884. In fact,it appears that all the schoolbooks erased the history of women in politics.
After 1884, Margaret Chase Smith ran for president in 1964, followed by Charlene Mitchell in 1968, the first African American woman to run for president. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm ran for president, becoming the first African American major party candidate to run. In 1988, Lenora Fulani ran for president, becoming the first African American and female to be on the ballot in all 50 states.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton shattered records for women running for president. Clinton was the first woman to win a presidential primary, and the first to be listed as a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus nationwide. Clinton won more votes than any primary candidate in American history. In 2016, Clinton was the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party. Clinton became the first woman to win the popular vote, receiving 66 million votes.
Four years later, in the 2020 presidential election cycle, a record-breaking six women ran for president for a major party. Yet, as the 2020 presidential election cycle has unfolded, all of the women have withdrawn their candidacy. This begs the question: Is the U.S. ready to see women rise in politics? The answer is yes. The continual bravery of these women to run for president since 1872 has fueled a new wave of women running for political office.
The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, analyzed the women in the United States 116th Congress of 2019. CAWP determined that 126 women held seats in the 535-member Congress, a record-breaking 23.6%. Since 1917, 358 women have served in the U.S. Congress to date. California has sent more women to Congress than any other state — a total of 43 to date. New York is next with 29 women to date.
Vermont has never sent a woman to Congress. As of September 2019, women were 28.9% of all state legislators nationwide, a record high (CAWP 2018 Report: Unfinished Business: Women Running in 2018 and Beyond). The accomplishments of the 116th Congresswomen and state women legislators are the progeny of women who had the courage to run for office, win or lose. Women should be encouraged by the 116th Congress. In addition, data shows that most Americans favor seeing more women in top leadership positions in politics.
A 2018 Pew Research Center Survey, Women and Leadership 2019, found 59% of Americans say there are too few women in top leadership positions in politics, with about half saying, ideally, there should be equal numbers of men and women. However, men are less likely to say there should be equal numbers of men and women in top leadership positions.
The survey also found that many Americans are skeptical that women will ever be able to overcome the obstacles keeping them from achieving gender parity in political leadership. How, then, do women rise in politics to assuage this skepticism? Women must continue to run until gender parity is achieved.
While women are over 50% of the population, they remain less than one-third of elected officials at and above the state legislative level (CAWP 2018 Report). The Politico Women Candidate Tracker, a collaboration with the CAWP and the Women in Public Service Project at the Wilson Center, shows that women are not running enough. In 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives had 435 seats up for election, but no woman ran for 154 of those seats. Similarly, the U.S. Senate had 35 seats up for election, but no woman ran for nine of those seats. If there is a seat open, women must run. Moreover, women lawyers are well-equipped to successfully run for open seats.
Women lawyers rising in politics is not a cautionary tale. Not too long ago, San Diego County held its 2020 Primary Election on March 3, 2020. Two superior court judicial races had one female lawyer each — Michelle Ialeggio, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney, and Alana Wong Robinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney. Both ran for elected office for the first time and won their races. In 2018, for the first time, Maria Nunez, owner of Nunez Law Corporation, ran as the only woman running in her race for San Marcos City Council and won. In 2016, for the first time, Mara Elliot, San Diego City Attorney, ran for City Attorney of San Diego as the only woman running and won. In 2000, for the first time, Esther Sanchez, a retired Deputy Public Defender, was the only female lawyer running out of 14 candidates for Oceanside City Council and won.
In conclusion, women’s political ambitions are necessary to help women achieve gender parity in politics. One need only look at the success of the women who ran in 2018 — “… the 2018 women candidates embraced gender as an electoral asset instead of a hurdle to overcome en route to Election Day. Likewise, women challenged gender and intersectional biases while campaigning, proving their power in disrupting instead of adapting to the prevailing rules of the game.” (CAWP 2018 Report). Let us vote for and support women rising in politics.
Yahairah Aristy is a Deputy Public Defender, SDCBA member, and served as co-campaign manager for a woman who was the first African American elected to the La Mesa City Council in 2018.