One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, the United States is far from achieving gender parity in political representation. The 2020 election of Kamala Harris as the first woman, first woman of color, and first multi-racial woman of African and South Asian descent to the office of the vice president represents a ground-breaking milestone. While women in other countries around the world have served as heads of state, women in the United States have yet to break that glass ceiling.
Yet, in thinking about the motivations, barriers, and significance of women becoming the U.S. president, what are the implications of serving as the commander in chief for an imperial nation state? How have women aspired to become the head of state to critique the U.S. empire? How has the existing political culture, shaped by martial citizenship, kept women out of the U.S. presidency? How have shared imperial ambitions enabled some women to become heads of state globally and in service of the executive in the United States? Is the U.S. exceptional for its reluctance to see women as capable of national, global, and imperial leadership? And is it possible to remake U.S. empire by electing a female president?
This module is divided into three sections:
Visual Timeline: Women Who Ran
Module Credits
PI: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
Research Team: Faith Bennett, Kacey Calahane, Emma Chapman, Samantha de Vera, Charlotte Hansen Terry